brothers from space
by sharpe26
Summary: an archeologist finds something in a middle Eastern desert that leads him on a way to a history he never could have imagined.
1. Chapter 1

1: archeology

1: archeology

Unremarkable desert. That was the first thing I saw as I got off the plane. And it was also the reason I was here, near Lisan, on the Dead Sea. In the distance I saw her, Serena Quinn, the leading archeologist for this expedition.

48 hours ago she had called me, and, it had sounded urgent with a capital U. I was on the next plane to Israel and from thereon a quick hop to Lisan. On the runway there were a couple of jeeps waiting for us. But that didn't bother me, Serena Quinn did. She was distressed. Distressed in a way I had never seen before.

I had a chance to talk to her as one of her assistents took my bags and put them in the jeep.  
" Good to see you again, digger." She nodded " Thank you for getting here so fast, Will." Now I had a reason to smile. " Hey, no problem. Now mind telling me what's going on." Quinn put on her serious face again. " You remember why I'm out here, right?"

I nodded. It wasn't a real big secret that Serena Quinn and her team had been looking for the bible code object. Since Lisan was located in Jordan, it had been difficult to obtain permission but luckily the university of Amman had been more then willing to allow a dig to be held in their name.

It was no surprise to me that Serena Quinn was named to head the expedition.

She continued " The reason I called you is metal, we found fully preserved metal that we can't date." I frowned. Current archeology science knows how to date most if not anything dug up. I told Serena just that.

" I know that too Will, but there's something more going on around here. I don't know why, much less am I able to tell it." Our discussion was interupted by a satellite phone going off.

It was one of Serena's assistents. She suddenly turned to me " Uncover enough of it to allow people to enter. Other then that don't disturb anything untill we're back."

" Entry point?" I asked. She nodded " The only thing Thomas told me that it looked like a hatch to him." I sat in quiet contemplation for the rest of the journey. This was the land of the bible. What could something looking like a metal hatch mean here ?

45 minutes later, I found myself staring down into the pit near where the hatch had been uncovered. A metal hatch, here, in the middle of the desert? My curiosity got the better of me as I began to descend into the pit, with Serena Quinn close behind.  
The dig site itsself was as a whole unremarkable. We were in a bowl with something that resembled a pyramid and some ruins which also looked relatively intact nearby.

" What about those other ruins?" I asked as we walked upwards. " We've been into some of them, but there's nothing that's anything like the metal we found."

The assistent named Thomas was waiting for us near the hatch itsself. Serena introduced him to me. He didn't look the part of Indiana Jones that much was certain. But, his arab assistent... let just say it would have been quite a match. Anyway, back to the uncovered hatch. It was a sloped affair. It almost looked like one of those shutters you sometimes see covering shop entrances.

As I looked around i couldn't help but notice we were standing on somekind of dais. Then I also noticed how far down we were.

And the shape of the pit. Square, all square. There was nothing on either side of the hatch. I decided to walk around. Studying the ground carefully, I didn't notice much else. Except for one thing. The entire area around the hatch was smooth.

I looked questioning at Serena who in turn looked at her assistent " We found it that way, mr Adams."

"Look Will, it's getting late, we might as well call it a day and have a go at it again tomorrow." I looked at the sky and nodded.

The following morning

Out of a habit, I got up early and walked through the camp to the dig site. Again I made the long descend into the pit. And again I circled the non descriptive hatch. The work men would soon be here to clear the rest of the area. It would either help my investigation, or it would mean an even bigger mess.

I started to look to where I had been standing yesterday. It felt as if I were standing at the base of one of the world tallest buildings.

" Morning, William." Serena came to stand beside me.

" What the hell is this, Serena?"

" Will, you remember stuff like the bible code, right?"

I nodded " the Sea of Lisan, the dead sea here, is mentioned as one location of an object of some sort. Noone really knows what kind of object."

Then she sprung her own trap on me. " What if it isn't there, but here"

By then the phone rang again.

We got to the hatch out of breath, having run the entire way. " It just opened, just like that." Jennifer, one of Serena's other assistents explained. " Anything peculiar happen when it opened?" I asked. " No sir, not even an air hish."

" equal pressure, interesting. I take it the air has been checked for anything lethal to us?"

Again thomas nodded. " Right, get some lamps up here, we're going in." Famous last words someone would later call them.

A brief examination with a robot found nothing remotely dangerous to us farther inside so we went in.

Our entry way was still boxshaped and open, with sunlight streaming in behind us. With my lamp I checked the way in front of me, only to find nothing but a cold grey wall. I touched it with my hand.

" metal?" At least that's what it felt like to me.

Serena came over to me and touched the place I had touched.

" Yeah that's odd. I never thoughed we'd find metal in a tomb." I glanced apprehensively.

" What ever this is, it's not a tomb."

The entrance fellt shut behind us once I finished the sentence.

Two of the others and Thomas rushed towards it and started banging. I didn't join them and instead started examining what I could see from where we now where. Serena however, beat me too it.

"I found something here," I held the light closer so I could see. There's somethings that are universal, whereever you are, and one of thme is measuring device, now just cresting a green zone.

And with yet another hiss of air, another hatch opened. There were a few audible gulps within the team. With the exception of computers, nothing ran by itsself. " Bill, I'm glad I called you." Serena all of a sudden admitted to me.

" Glad I could help out." I muttered as we walked down the corridor.

With the light the lamps the light provided I checked the surroundings as we went deeper in. It was a straight metal build corridor, There looked to be no halls or anything else yet leading in any other direction.

" I'm starting to wonder what this really is?" I said to noone in particular.

" Bill?"

" I'm starting to wonder what this really is? You haven't found any kind tomb, there's way too much metal here for that."  
Serena stayed quiet. It was almost as if she was afraid of something. "I know. It feels like I've bitten off more then I can handle."

" Just try to relax, the egyptians or whoever it was that build these things were known for dealing rather harshly with grave robbers. We'll all need to be on our toes here." She nodded and gave the others the same warning.

We stopped at the first intersection to leave a marker so we would find our way back. Again I examined the walls. All of a sudden I got a laughing fit. And no matter how I tried, I just couldn't stop laughing. For whatever it was we had entered, it had been using regular lockers!

A voice came from behind me " locker room, this is getting weird."

I nodded. " Got anything with you that we can use to open it with."

" Why?" This came from Serena.

" This is not your regular grave, tomb or anything Egyptian. This is way, way out of your league, and way out of mine too."

" However, we're stuck here, so we're going to have to deal with it."

We went onward and picked one direction we would all walk in. We past more lockers in assorted shapes and sizes as we went deeper from our point of departure. The more I saw the more I started to worry, conviced that we weren't in nay kind of Egyptian or other thing. This was so far out of this world that it scared me.

Again we halted, this time near a bank of elevators. I found myself working with Jim Hayden, Serena her expert on old languages. He too looked baffled by what he was seeing. I walked over to him. " Hey Bill, sorry we couldn't talk earlier."

" I don't mind, just tell me what you found."

" Not much, standard elevator with markings only, no language, but the numbers are in our standard format."

I frowned as he said that. " Odd."

" Very odd. Got any ideas on where you want to go from here?"

Now I studied the panel for myself. " Yeah, I have something in mind." The others assembled with me here. We left Jim Hayden and someone I didn't know behind and took the elevator down to what looked like a central level to me.  
An erily dark hue met us as we left the elevator. " Mark it." This time Serena threw down another lightstick and I heard sounds of something being scrabbled down. " I'll go on ahead. Watch your step everyone."

This time we went a bit slower, with everybody watching where they put their feet. However, our luck held and nothing happened. The next corridor we came to was far more spacious then anything I had ever seen. At least from what we saw through the light of the torches.

Whilst progressing I noticed several doors that were slightly ajar. I filed that away for later examination. We finally reached the end of the corridor. Part of it seemed to be made up of larger sections. Peering through one of the doors, I noticed something that could best be described as living quarters. Was this some kind of room where someone... my thoughts trailed off as another door hissed open.

" Bill over here." Serena called out to me. It didn't sound all that urgent, yet rather surprised.

When I got to where Serena was I wistled to my own surprise.

" Looks like we struck gold, Serena."

" We sure did."

We were standing on the edge of something that for all practical purposes reminded me of a CIC. I saw but a few blinking lights in the distance, indicating that were at least some things still in working order.

I looked at the daise that rose above everything else and started out for it.

The others began looking at the instrument panels below me.

By now, unease was starting to settle in. I was missing something in this picture but I hadn't yet grasped what I was missing. From the corner of my eye I caught Serena working one of the computers. I began to rush over as more lights came on.  
But fortunately, nothing else more serious happened.

"looks like we have power to what you call the CIC." She remarked as I got there. I didn't curse her. I was just happy nothing else had happened. For my own security, I looked around again.

It seemed as if more and more systems were going active as I again began walking around to inspect the surroundings. Some systems were already active, and others began to come on line.

I directed as many people as possible to monitor available stations, but it soon proved to be an impossible task. I already knew we were going to need more people.

Before we would start back however, I did a check of the instruments as far as I could understand them. The entire board was green. Nothing the matter, yet.

On the way back, I already was replaying in my mind what I was going to have to tell Serena. It wasn't going to be pretty, that much was certain.

Later that night I picked up my satelite Phone and dialed the number I had been given years ago.

" Central Command, how may I help you?"

" This is Bill Adams, please patch me through to Admiral Schultz."  
A few days of explorative undertakings passed without much happening. With my help, Serena and her team managed to produce a rather detailed map of what we had found so far. As a private project of sorts, I spend some time in the cabins near the bridge, learning all there was to learn about what ever it was that was semi buried here in the desert.

What I learned, opened up a whole new and very frightening world for me. Everything I knew was going to change, radically.

And it began on the sixth day after my phone call.

The introduction to said change consisted of two F18 Hornet fighter jets buzzing the camp and the digsite at high speed. A few moments later, in came three Ospreys.

They landed in an inverted V formation. I knew from experience the Gooney's to the left and right would be carrying either Seals or Marines. From the center Gooney however emerged a figure dressed in white pants, wearing a tan jacket and sun glasses.

As he noticed me and the others the group started to come over. As the dust started to settle, I noticed Jerry Schultz himself that was heading straight for me. The Admiral must really think this is important to come here himself.

" Hey Bill, long time no see." Jerry pumped my hand in with a very warm greeting. " Times must really be desperate if they made you admiral, Jerry." I replied, returning the handshake. Schultz laughed. " Right, Bill, what's so urgent you had to bring me down here?"

We walked to the edge of the pit and I pointed out the first details to him.

" You struck gold Bill." It was his first reaction.

" that's what I told Doctor Quin over here, sir."

" i do indeed remember the good doctor Quinn. How are you miss?" Serena smiled as Jerry also pumped her hand.

" I'm fine, thank you, admiral." She gave a polite nod to him in reply. I realised this must be hard on her, having one of her pet projects janked out from under her, just like that.

" Allright Bill, what do you want from us?"

" Manpower." I blurted it out. " We never had anything like this before so we're going to need manpower."  
Schultz nodded and directed one of his adjudants to make a note of it. Then he started down towards the site., the rest of his group and us in tow.

For the next couple of hours, we showed him everything that we already knew, some of the things we suspected, and some of the things we didn't quite yet have a clue about.

It was around midday when we got out of our find and went back to the basecamp. A conference would be set up inside Serena her tent. Here we were going to have to detail our request for manpower, and a few other things as well.

It didn't take long for the admiral to make his point. " Quite frankly, the odds of any us disassembling that thing down there and reassembling it some place else are astronomical. There's no way in hell we can do that."

He paused, clearly collecting his thoughts. " So, we're going to have to move her, under her own power."

I looked at the admiral, aghast. " Sir, we have no idea whatsoever if she'll fly, float or anything else for that matter. I'd rather have the object stay here so we can study it further. Perhaps it'll allow us to come up with some safe options."

" Given the circumstances, I'd agree with you wholeheartedly Bill, but there's two things here that work against you. One: the area of the world you're in. Two: the consequences of what you've found here."

" I know, we're not alone anymore."

" Exactly, and I'd rather not see this ship destroyed, or in the wrong hands for that matter."

" So now what?" This came from one of the assistents. For some reason, as yet beyond me, the admiral looked directly at me beofre clearing his throat.

" First of all, someone's comission here gets reactivated, along with a promotion." I nearly choked at the tought of getting pulled back in by the Navy.

I noticed Serena Quinn looking a little sullen but soon, Jerry Schultz turned his attention to her. " Why so sullen Doctor Quinn? There's no way in hell we're taking this project away from you! We're only going to relocate it to somewhere safe. And this where you'll have unlimited acess to the entire thing!"

At that she looked up " Besides, I want someone who knows what she's doing to find out how that thing got here in the first place."

" That leaves just one rather interesting thing." I pointed out. " If we're going to get her someplace 'safe' we're going to need a crew, and a big one at that!"

It wasn't often you shut up an admiral, and I had one of the opportunitys to actually do it. To my surprise however, Admiral Schulz started to smile. " Bill, What do you remember about the Nimitz and theEisenhower?"

I told some of the things I remembered about serving on them and concluded with " both of these ships are nearing their retirement age if I remember correctly."

" Correct. And since the Super carriers are again running behind..." I finished the sentence for him.

" Two full carrier crews with nothing to do, up til now." I couldn't believe it either. " That might help, but in the long run, people are going to start asking questions."

" I guess then it all depends on one thing. How long can we run with this." Serena Quinn mutered.

" Hopefully long enough." I muttered in reply.


	2. Chapter 2

2

2

None of the bridge crew or even the science officers had a clue as to what had happened or how or even why, but the colonial battlestar Pegasus was no longer trailing the fleet of colonial survivors under escort by the battlestar Galactica.

Instead, it found itself in an unremarkable solar system, somewhere as yet to be determined. Not even the navigators on the battlestar yet had a clue as to what the ships position was.

Only one person knew already, and he wasn't even on the ship.

Far beyond any human comprehension of time and space, one man and someone else found themselves talking.

" How very nice of you to join us, commander Cain."

The human known as commander Cain was a little less pleased however. " What is this place? Where am I? return me the Pegasus at once."

He got no reply. Instead, out of nowhere a table and two chairs appeared. " Please, commander, sit down, we have a lot to talk about and it concerns the fleet you have been protecting all these many years."

Harrumping and muttering, Cain sat down.

" Allright, now what is this all about?"

" Your job, commander. It's too protect the fleet to the best of your abillity, is it not?"

" It is, and why are you keeping me from doing it?"

" All in good time, you must know at first that we have some pretty good reasons to bring you here, commander."

At this Cain shut up. " Mind explaining yourself then,..."

" You may call me John, commander. Now allow me to explain why you're here."

With the mere thought a monitor appeared and on it, appeared something that looked like the bridge of a battlestar. Much to Cain's own surprise, it wasn't the bridge of the Pegasus. And the thing that astounded him even more was the fact that there civilians walking around said bridge.

" Civilians on the bridge of a battlestar, who in their right minds allows that." Cain blurted out in semi anger.

John only smiled. " Those civilians and the bridge of that battlestar is why you are here."

Cain said nothing and continued to study the image while John continued also " That battlestar, lies dormant on the planet Earth. Your ship is quite nearby, fortunately for us." John paused for a bit, as the images moved along at normal speed.

" So what do you want from me then?"

" Train them. Teach them why you're a living legend." Now cain started to smile. " I'll mold them in my very image."

" That's the spirit, commander. But we do think you need some help on this matter." As if on cue, something appeared on Cain's peripheral vision. As he turn, his vision grew into that of another human, even wearing a colonial uniform. He saw who it was nearly immediatly.

" Starbuck!"

Although his uniform looked a lot worse for the wear, and the lieutenant even more so, Cain somehow felt overjoyed to see the young lieutenant.

" Cain, you're dead too?" was the first thing out of the lieutenants mouth. Then he saw John.

" Oh no, not you guys again."

" Last I looked I was still aboard the Pegasus, Starbuck."

" Now, you'll have plenty of time to get reaquainted, but you must act soon, I fear time is short and Earth will need the Atlantis more then she can yet imagine."

" Wait!" Cain had barked it out like an order. " How will we know when to..."

He was too late. The very next moment, both Cain and Starbuck found themselves back onboard the Pegasus, in Cain's quarters.

Cain began by reaching for his comlink.

" Bridge, I want a full sweep of the system we're in. If there's anything remarkable out there, I want to know about it. Also bring up my dinner and a spare uniform."

A " Yes sir." Came back just before Cain switched off the speaker system.

" Now lieutenant, what is the state of the fleet, before whatever it was that happened happened to you?" Cain then asked the young lieutenant still with him.

Starbuck told him what he knew.

Cain came to a quick conclusion " Pretty much nothing has changed then. Allright, once we get back I'm going to but some heads myself."

Then his door chime rang. A yeoman came in carrying a uniform. Close behind followed another one, who was pushing a cart with two platters on it.

" It isn't much, but it 'll have to do for now. I find myself in need of a Strike captain, and you're it." An astonished Starbuck nearly choked on his first food.

Cain continued " Right now, we're gathering any and all info on this system. I'm pretty sure there will be a lot of places from which we can observe Earth. Lords, Adama was right."

The two men ate while discussing past adventures.

Somewhat later the door chime rang again. In came the Pegasus XO, colonel Tolen, carrying a rather large data card.

Cain didn't get all that formal with Tolon " Colonel, I take it you remember Starbuck over here."

Tolon nodded. " I do remember the lieutenant, sir."

" Good " Cain answered. " He'll be our new Strike captain oh and colonel, any rumor from the crew as to how he got here is to be reported to me at once."

Tolen nodded and put the datacard down on the desk. " I have the data you wanted, sir."  
Then he left again.

" Explaining how I got here is going to be quite a problem." Starbuck remarked as he started to shuffle his personal deck of playing cards.

" That I can take care of. It's what we'll find on Earth that has me worried."

" Earth will need Atlantis more then she can imagine." Starbuck quoted John.

" So we wait, and watch." Both men looked at the data feed the colonel had brought down. " The moon seems as good a place as any to start from..." Starbuck remarked.

On that same planet Earth, I was going over some paperwork. Most if had come from a NASA engineer group who had figured out that flying this ship, I still only knew her name to be Atlantis, in any kind of conventional way would be, dangerous to say the least.

But that wasn't the only problem. Yet another visitor had arrived to the site a few hours ago. I was glad that this time it was someone I really knew from my past days in the service.

" long time no see, Bill."

" Steve!" I leaped out of my seat and began to pump his hand vigourously.

After that phase was over, the official part kicked in. " Captain Steve Dunlop reporting for duty." I returned his salute and looked aghast. " You never been this official before Steve, why is that?"

Somehow, without anybody and his dog finding out about, Jerry Schulz had managed to get nearly the entire crew of the Nimitz over to the site. In one of the first trips, one of those groups had found something that for all practical purposes looked like a launchbay, a launchbay that also contained ships.

I did the safe thing and asked for pilots after we translated nearly all of the instruments and other stuff we found to English.

And now Steve Dunlap was here. Admiral Schultz had some serious cloud now I realised.

" come on, let me show you what we found."

I Led the newly promoted captain, as I found out on the way, towards the flightbays.

We got to the organized chaos that was still the port flightbay.

Equipment was everywhere. All over the place there were men and women alike, looking at strange craft they had never seen before, and studying what to do with them.

Dunlap for all practical purposes ignored the boxy looking things I and the others had already figured out to be shuttles.

His attention was on something nestling rather snugly on something that could for all lack of a better name be called a conveyor belt.

On top of it, lay another craft. Looking as pristine as ever. It held him captive, I could clearly see it as his gaze followed the long sleek nose to the stubby wings with the two gunbarrels and the tri engine arrangement.

" Beautiful! Whoever build these sure knew what they were doing."

" There is a slight problem though." I paused for a bit, reflecting on how to tell a naval officer that the thing he was drooling over was actually named after an Airforce jet!

" What problem is that? Admiral Schulz briefed me so, I've got a pretty good clue about the operation you're in charge of."

" The problem isn't the operation. It's the name of what you're looking at." I paused " From what we found, these things are called Vipers."

It was as if a pin had dropped. The captain's eyes began bulging in their sockets. " There's no way in hell, that Airforce name is sticking to this thing!" I noticed several heads turning in the distance. Steve's voice had been that loud.

Maybe it was inspiration or divine intervention, but, the captain looked at and said " This 'll be a Tomcat, the mark two to be exact."

A smile formed on my lips. One problem out of the way, several hundredthousand still to go. I left the captain studying the various aspects of the Viper ships in the launch bay and headed back up to the command area. It was just about the only part of the ship that had been thoroughly inspected and searched. Hell, it was the only part of the ship with people already living on it!  
Even if it was only me.

I walked back to the quarters I had given myself and started to work through the enormous stack of paper again.

Some of them were analysis on the metals found. Others were just plain engineering reports. Two of them actually contained something interesting. A crew of naval engineering personnel had been to what they determined was the engine room, and lo and behold, with the help of a translator, they actually found out a number of things about the fuel.

The first thing was that all the tanks they could find, the were full up to the rim. The second one however was a bit more disturbing. One of the compounds in the fuel was rather volatile, and a guess from the report was that special measures might be needed to prevent anything catastrophic from happening.

I wrote down that I wanted to see the team commander as soon as possible.

Their extension however made me smile. " All of the fuel tanks we found were full. Whoever left this vessel made sure he or she had something to come back to."

" Now I know how a test pilot feels." I remarked to noone in particular.

There was a crackle of static electricity and the door chime suddenly rang. " Looks like we got power Bill!" Avoice filled them room I was in. But it was a little loud making me rush towards anything that remotely looked like a com panel.

I turned one knob, flipped one switch and pushed yet another button. Now the squelching and other noises subsided. " Serena, how am I coming through?" It had been her voice that had informed me the electricity or whatever it was that controlled this ship had been turned on.

" Loud and clear." Was her answer. " See what you and your translater can find out about the rest of the ships systems. I'm on my way."

Instead of somewhat groping my way through the dark with only a flashlight, I got to where I needed to go in record time.

At the CIC everything was brightly lit. Even more systems were now working. Playing a hunch I called for Serena again. I found her near yet another computer screen.

"Anyway you can dig up somesort of schematic, or blue print of what we're on?" She nodded and started to work.

In one of the areas of space near the moon, someone else was groping around as well. This person was a bit more in the dark however then Bill Adams.

Although Starbuck was familiar with flying through space, he kept worrying as the moon was getting closer.

" I hope you guys aren't counting off for neatness." He said more to himself then anyone else as he began to slow down. Cain's monitoring plan sounded a little ludicrous to him at first but Starbuck soon understood the need for secrecy.

No need to alert the entire Cylon war machine to the existence of planet Earth!

At the lowest altitude possible the viper skimmed the surface of the mare tranquillatis. As the noticed the blue planet coming up over the horizon, Starbuck knew it was time to land.

Then he sat down and activated the relay which would allow the Pegasus to see what he was receiving.

Down on the planet earth that Starbuck was now watching from his canopy, the pace began to pick up.

For some reason I felt as if I was being watched. While standing on top of the command pedestal, I had the unbelievable sensation that someone was indeed looking over my shoulder but as I turned around there was no one watching at me.

We were about a month into the exploration of what was now being called a technical Rosetta stone.

The place really started to come alive for me.

One enterprizing young officer, a lieutenant Caldwell, had already started to run some drills with some of the equipment he had been able to figure out with the help of a college friend on Serena her team.

He gave his demonstration with such skill that I gave him an instructor slot, ordering him to train other assigned personnel in the workings of the systems.

Thanks to Lieutenant Caldwell, I got another boon two days later, in the form of commander Sheila Wainwright. I suppose that the two had served together on a ship earlier in their career, but the lieutenant did inform me that commander Wainwright was fascinated by the stars and had tried to get on shuttle missions several times.

In all cases she had been turned down.

She came to see me in my quarters. " Lieutenant Commander Sheila Wainwright reporting as ordered, sir."

" At ease, commander and please, take a seat." There were some small leather recliners centered around a lounge table available for her to sit in. I moved some papers aside so I could sit opposite her.

" I don't really know how to start this except by saying that Lieutenant James Caldwell told me you're in love with space."

Her face hid a brief smile. " I suppose one would call it that, sir." She paused, reflecting briefly. " my father was an astronomer, sir. He installed his love of the stars into me, and ever since that, I've had the wish to dance amongst the stars."  
I smiled at the commanders zeal for her trade " Well commander, it's bumping into those stars that has me worried. And it's also the reason why you're here. I need someone to map the stars for me, and you're it. Welcome aboard."

She took my hand as i extended it. " Thank you sir, I'll try not to let you down."

After she left, I took another look at my crew roster. With flight ops in the hands of Steve Dunlap, I felt things were going to be okay in that departement. Sheila Wainwright filled the navigation position out rather nicely so I had no worries there either. Serena Quinn would handle the science team. If any military type was going to give her trouble, there would still be me and naturally, the admiral.

Lieutenant James Caldwell would handle any kind of situation on the bridge I felt. It hit me right then. I needed three more staff. And I needed to talk to Steve again.

Instead of Steve Dunlap I found an angry Serena Quinn, practically jumping at the bit and demanding to have a word with me. I ushered her into my office and asked her to sit down. She refused rather directly.

" Allright, what's wrong?"

" I'll tell you what's wrong. Most of those military types don't understand what we're trying to do here."

I nodded " I know, the officer I now have assigned to bridge watch thinks he's on the Enterprise. He'll get an education once things start happening."

Now it was Serena's turn to look perplexed. " What do you mean by that?"

I walked over to my seperate desk and handed her a stack of papers I had recently printed out.

" Just after I got in here, I found stuff that looked like log entries in the desktop computer over there. I had Jim and some of his friends look into it and you've got before you what they found."

" What is it?"

" The commander's logs. In a way, this changes everything, and I do mean _everything!_"

Serena was already reading. Nearly instantly, she found one of the parts I highlighted.

" Earth. Our new home, far away from those bumbling fools of the tribal council. I don't know what happened to the others, nor do I really care. The other twelve have followed the directions of that fool Romus. I don't know if he's under the influence of that priest. I even forgot his name. I do know this, the twelve other tribes are doomed. I do hope my brother, Lord Sagan, can talk some sense into them."

" That's one of the last log entries." I remarked as she finished reading. " We're not quite sure what happened after that."

" That's why I need you, Serena. We've only uncovered the op of this clue, and there's a heck of a lot more digging to do. That's what I need you for, Doctor Quinn." I looked her straight in the eye, giving her the message that I knew what I wanted her to give me.

" Allright, but I'll need something in return."

I wrote her demand down on the writing pad before I called the admiral again.

Instead of three, four people came into my office two weeks later.

First in was the admiral. The other three were the people I requested.

" Hello Bill, Glad to see Atlantis coming up nicely." I nodded as the Admiral and his entourage settled down in my office.

" Thank you sir, but that's not quite why I called you down here." I explained Serena her troubles along with some observations of my own and added that even though with my reactivated Navy comission I was technically head of the project, I couldn't do it alone. I needed someone with another science background to help out.

And since there was basically nobody else...

In the end Admiral Schulz did nothing but agree to the request. Then three men with him were up for my review.

The admiral handed me their folders.

" First up, Lieutenant Samuel Johnson. You're up for the weapons officer slot." He nodded asw I read on " You seemed to have managed a record time in target aquiring. What was it, five seconds?"

He smiled briefly " Well sir, I knew we had threats that would come in at sea level so I set one of the radars to find it. And find it I did. The missiles were away not much later."

" Right. As the weapons officer of this vessel, you'll have two distinct duties. Your first duty is defensive weaponry. Basically you're to keep us from getting scratched in the first place. In the second place however I want you to be able to scratch anything that comes up against this ship. Yet there will also be times I will ask for restraint. My orders will sometimes task you to the maximum. Do you feel up to it?"

Now Johnson started to smile. " Yes sir." Once released, this officer would have nearly carte blanche from me to scratch up anything we would come up against. And yet he would also show restraint when i would ask it from him.

The two other officers wore camouflage. One of them, a woman, carried the globe and anchor while the other carried a trident, marking the woman as USMC and the man as a Seal.

A brief glance at their files had shown me that I wanted these two officers to fill out my staff.

Mumbling ladies first to myself I started with the Marine. " Colonel Sandra Merryweather, I'm pleased to make your aquintance."

Through a stroke of luck the colonel had commanded an artillery battery during the second Korean War. She had repelled three Korean human wave attacks by firing point blank into the approaching mass of troops. When the North had tried it with tanks, then Major Merryweather had shown that 155mm guns make good AT guns as well.

Her battery became a rally point for survivours, and with those she held until reinforcements came up.And since Marines are also traditional she would fill the position I had in mind like a capital P.

" I'm resurrecting an old position, destined soley for this vessel." I started. " I'm formally requesting you to be my gunnery officer. You'll work with lieutenant Johnson in formulating defensive and offensive gunnery plans to implement, should the situation warrant it afcourse."

She nodded " When do i start sir?"

My answer sounded very final. " Today."

Last up, The trident. I skimmed through his file again. " Lieutenant Commander David Cain, Navy Seals."

I got a none telling stare in reply.

" Let me guess, don't ask, don't tell?"

" Aye sir, If ever got out what we did, there'd be hell." He answered.

I nodded " Good. This ship needs a viable groundforce that can raise hell, go into hell and get people out of there as well." I let that sink in before going on.

" You come recommended as someone who's not afraid to speak his mind. Yet also knows how to pull off surprises. I need unconventional thinkers, and you're one of them. Oh and by the way, you have carte blanche from the admiral to pick anyone you need for your team."

Now Cain also smiled " Aye sir, I'll get right on it."

That left me with the admiral.

" Allright Bill, Groom Lake is pretty much ready for you. Any ideas on how you're going to get Atlantis to there?"

Luckiliy now my office included a digital map screen. I activated it and selected the plans I had drawn in cooperation with commander Wainwright and captain Dunlap. The course lines appeared as an overlay on the map.

" As far as we can tell, there's but one option open to us, and that's up." I highlighted the course showing the giant half loop to the desert. " Everything else pretty much leaves us open to discovery, and we don't want that, do we."

Schulz half laughed. " No we don't. Do you plan to take her into space?"

" Yes sir, eventually. We're going to have to find out who put her here, and if they've left any other goodies behind. And this is nothing we want to 'stumble across."

" Allright Bill, continue what you're doing. Once Groom is ready for you, you're cleared to come in at your own." With that said the admiral got up and left as well.

I called up what was now technically my bridge. " How fare are we with departure preparations?"

The answer was satisfactoraly. " Alright, keep to the timetable." Not quite history making, but I knew we would get there eventually.

Again on the surface of the moon, Starbuck slept.

On the surface of planet Earth, the dustcloud that had been the telltale sign of a vehicle hitting its brakes, slowly dissapated on the light breeze that had been predicted by weather forecasters.

The first pair of boots that emerged completely from the vehicle, belonged to none other then Doctor Khalid Bin Sultan, head of the archeology departement of the university of Amman.

The Doctor stared incrediously into the distance. Where there had once been a thriving archeological dig, there was now exactly nothing except empty ruins.

Since he sported a thin beard, Bin Sultan began stroking it in thought.

" Something wrong?" The driver had also left the vehicle. This one however wore the uniform of the Royal Jordanian Forces.

" Perhaps, Captain Tahid, perhaps. What was it your superiors said about this area?"

Tahid, still overlooking the desert quoted his briefing " To asses in any way any form of involvment of the armed forces of the United States of America."

" Perhaps we should head back."

" Perhaps we should, professor."

The two men got in their vehicle and turned around, to commence the long yourney back to their respective starting points.


	3. Chapter 3

3b

3

From one desert to another. That pretty much summed up the view at Groom Lake. The only difference was here there were buildings, a runway and some general signs this place was in use.

Overhead I noticed contrails. There was a CAP in the area, and the civilian airliners had been told to stay clear of the Groom lake area. So far so good. On the ground things were heating up as well. Cain's Seals had pitted themselves against Merrywheater her Marines in mock combat excercises.

The bad part was where they had chosen to continue. The base its NCO and enlisted clubs. But luckily the base commander had nipped it in the bud and together with Cain and Merrywheater I figured out some very creative punishments.

Training had its share of worries too.

First up where the pilots. Strangely enough we found enough small arms on Atlantis to equip everyone with them. The security detachements, ground force and pilots went first. Naturally, I started to worry as a report reached me about paper targets being blown in half within the first few shots fired.

Then Captain Dunlap came to me. As everyone and his dog knows Carrier aviation is a trade that requires constant training. And his boys and girls hadn't even gone up yet.

" Oh, I'm going to be the first one out. No sense in risking anyone else before we understand these things completely." I couldn't agree more with him. The deorbit we did wtih Atlantis was a rather terrifying experience, something I'd rather not put the ship through again.

So it took about two days to safely prepare a fighter for the flight.

The assembled crowd contained pretty much everytbody on the base. Even the admiral had found the time to come on over.

I met his aircraft on the runway and saluted the admiral once he was near my Hummer.

" Hey Bill, a first flight is always exciting, isn't it."

" Yes sir, it is. I do have one question though. Do you want to watch it from the bridge or do you want to see it from the outside?"

I saw a twinkle appear in his eye " From the outside. I'll ber one of the few guys still in that has seen the Tomcat fly, again."

We chatted amicably on our way to the flightpod.

It was quite a crowd . Though we got through without any difficulty. I carried a handheld radio with me that I activated once we were in position.

" Atlantis Commander to Atlantis bridge."

" Bridge, you're on sir."

I spoke but a few words " Do it."

I didn't wait for a response but just chose to brace myself.

With the roar of a thunderstorm, and only a brief flash of white I witnessed the launch of Atlantis first Tomcat fighter, and heard the loud yahoo that went along with it.

We briefly watched as Tomcat one very rapidly began to accelerate out of view.

" Atlantis bridge this baby moves like you wouldn't believe. I'm already at thirtythousand and still going up." The bridge acknowledged Dunlap's transmission.

Then it was my turn. " Alright Steve, just around the moon and back. Nothing fancy."

" No problem, cap, I take it you want some fancy photos?"

" Nothing too fancy, Steve, the old moon landing 'll do for now."

" Right, setting the course." Again I heard the thunder. Now it wasn't as loud as at the time of the launch though. I turned to the admiral. " Sir, perhaps we should go to the bridge. Captain Dunlap's flight will be easier to follow from there."

" Lead the way Bill."

Through some fancy attachements and my liberal use of the elevators, we used the bridge in record time.

" Alright, where is he?" I asked Lieutenant Caldwell as we got there. " Plot screen, sir."

The large board behind the command dais lit up with a model of planet Earth. A fluid trajectory showed the distance the Tomcat had already flown. A dashed line showed the course trajectory. He was right on course.

In space however, someone had a different opinion on the test flight. Again, Starbuck had pulled surveillance duty.

With the passive sensors at full, he had picked up the viper as it left the atmosphere. The course was clear, the moon.

Unwittingly, Starbuck glanced to his left and caught sit of the old moonlanding remains as he contemplated powering up and getting out of the area. Little did he know that the decision was about to be taken out of his hands.

" Tomcat One is go for scanner test." The young captain spoke into his radio.

He toggled the switches that would activate the ship's entire scan system. Not quite within visual range the moon began to get bigger.

Then it appeared on the radar screen, earth's moon.

Dunlap had a brief time to wonder before something began to beep.

" Uh oh." He said it out loud, not realising he had left his mike open.

" tomcat one?" the query from Atlantis flight control wasn't really urgent but yet someone had picked up on something happening. Uh Oh generally gave people the idea something was wrong.

" Scanners have picked up something." Was the only reply.

" Carefull, Tomcat one." I heard the flight controller give Steve the warning.

" Is he getting the landing field on the scanners?" The admiral's question seemed valid to me. Lieutenant Caldwell had apparently overheard. " We don't know, sir."

I gave him my look of disbelief.

" We know how it works and what we're getting sir. We just don't know from how far we're getting it, yet." He went on to explain.

It was only then the Tomcat One telemetry disappeared.

Disappeared seemed rather weak. It vanished completely. " Full power to scanners, and get a hold of the deputy CAG and findout if he has anyone else available to go up."

I swore, even before we were up and running we lost someone. I just couldn't believe it.

At that same time, Captain Steve Dunlap couldn't believe it either. A second Viper, much like his own, had zoomed up to him from the direction of the moon. That wasn't the only thing though. The second viper had managed to jam nearly all his sensor and other surveillance equipment aboard, with the exception of the main flight systems.

The second time he caught a peek of the viper it was nearly hugging his port wing.

Close enough for the captain to see an egyptian helmet in the cockpit, seemingly looking at him.

Being the carefull kind, Steve looked round to see if he was in any danger of colliding with anything. He found a group of three more vipers coming in of his nose.

" Oh shit." He muttered it more to himself then anybody else.

" So this is what an alien abduction goes like." The group flew on.

After having flown a while, the other vipers began slowing down. Captain Dunlap repeated the procedure to the best of his abillity. And then received the biggest surprise of his entire naval career.

In front of him, was nothing less then a sister to Atlantis!

A strong voice cut through his helmet " Follow the viper in front of you to the landing area. Do not deviate from the landing pattern. Any deviation will be met by deadly force."

A clear case of shut up and do as you're told. Steve reflected as he began following the translated landing instructions to the best of his abillity. For some reason everything went off without a hitch. The viper decelarated, the landing gear came down, and for some reason the Viper didn't even collapse on landing.

Things got interesting on the far end of the hangar pod.

With the help of a tractor, the viper was pulled to a waiting half circle of men. All of which were porting rifles. Rifles even the CAG of the navy its first space carrier had never seen before. Except at one place, of which only he and a few others knew its existence.

The Atlantis project.

But this was something else entirely. As one, they raised their rifles, aiming them directly at him.

Without thinking, the captain opened his canopy and raised his hands.

" I guess the right thing to say, would be take me to your leader?"

No response from the stern faces, until a gruff " At ease." Lowered the rifles.

Now standing in his 'pit, Steve watched how an older looking man and a younger man wearing the same uniforms descended from an elevator and walked over. The only odd thing was the gold braid on

" would you mind getting out of that cockpit, there are far more comfortable areas on this ship where we can talk."

There was something in the man that made Dunlap get out of the cockpit.

" Please forgive the abduction, but the captain here was under orders to monitor the situation concerning Atlantis."

" I know that all's fair in love and war, sir." He never finished the sentence.

" But what?"

" I would like to know who I'm talking to though."

" Ah. The best place would be at the beginning. My name is Cain, just Cain. I'm the commander of the Pegasus, the ship you're currently on."

" Captain Steve Dunlap United States Navy."

" Perhaps we should adjourn to the conference room, sirs." The ground force commander remarked as the conversation was about to heat up. " if the Cylons…." He never got to finish the phrase.

" Who are the Cylons?"

" Yes, all in good time, please follow me."

The small group headed deeper into the ship. Though keeping it to himself, Steve was rather surprised to see that the carrier concept had made its way into space. First they headed up and then away from the pod until finally after a brisk walk a room lay up ahead.

At first the room seemed dark, but Cain as he had introduced himself, soon brought some lights up to full swing.

There were a number of seats in the room and for better lack of understanding, something that looked like a maptable. Cain motioned Steve and the only other guy in the room with them to sit down.

He then stepped to the front of the table and activated it.

A holo display of Earth, the sun and the other planets appeared, all rendered in color. Between the moon and Mars appeared another dot, this one in blue.

Then yet another dot appeared, in green. " Earth, currently the home of Atlantis." Cain began. " We are the blue dot in case you're wondering. We've been out here three weeks so far, and your Viper is the first indication we have of colonial tech reaching Earth."

Cain then gave the history of the twelve colonies of man to the best of his recollection. Along with it he showed the material he had downloaded from the Galactica data records. Figuring prominently, was afcourse Baltar. " This man is Count Baltar. He was apparently the Cylons chosen to carry out the treason. They played his ego, apparently willing to let him have his colony under his sole rule.

" As we speak, the count is still on the loose, very probably he's in command of the cylon forces that are pursueing the Galactica and her fleet. On to the next matter."

An image appeared of a robotic creature. The first thing that was clear, was the humongous sword it carried. Second came the laser rifle, with the additionally odd looking bayonet attachement. " Alone they don't look like much, but when there's an unending suply of them…."

" Look, commander Cain, I understand about your problem with the Cylons, and the sorry state your ship is in, but what has that got to do with me."

" There is a third battlestar out there, somewhere, looking for Earth." At this information, the pilot perked his ears. " You've heard the name before, the Galactica. " Again a picture of a battlestar appeared.

" she's escorting what's left of the twelve worlds to Earth."

As he didn't get any response from the other captain, Cain went on. " twohundred and twenty ships, carrying, as many people as could be crammed aboard them. Commander Adama has had to rely on everything he could find and carry along with those ships. Manufacturing equipment, food, clothes, medicin. It's all there."

Now Steve found reason to speak " That tech base could be just the thing. You say he's carrying what he could carry with him?"

" 220 ships, stuffed to the ghills with everything a society would need to survive in deep space, travelling at a speed that would make them target practice for nearly everybody."

By now, captain Dunlap knew what he had to do.

" Sir, can you get me in contact with Atlantis?"

" Right this way, captain."

I had been pacing the command console and the surrounding area for a couple of hours at least. There was no message from Tomcat one. I started to contemplate ordering the full activation of the scanner suite aboard the ship.

Then I heard a radio squawk " Atlantis control, Tomcat one. Better rol out the welcome wagon."

I grabbed the nearest available headset " Tomcat one, Affirmative job well done."

" Thanks Atlantis, do you have me on the scopes?"

I turned around to receive a thumbs up from a sailor manning a nearby console.

" Confirmed, showing a single high altitude contact." Then something happened which made one contact turn into three.

" Tomcat One say status?"

" Tomcat One, status green."

The very same moment the admiral chose to reappear. I reported my findings to him " Sir, we have reestablished contact with tomcat one. It seems though he isn't alone."

The admiral studied the screens with all available information. " In one of the reports I noticed there was a reference to an electronic ' Janes' version of somesorts. Can you run that?"

I looked at Caldwell " start up the electronic Janes and reroute the stream up here."

One of the computer screens started to flash silhouettes, one after the other in quick sucession. Some more menacing then others, some even resembling two spinning tops while others looked like versions of Atlantis, albeit with different dimensions and specifications.

Then the first silhouette came up.

" Twelve worlds shuttlecraft. Ship to ship and surface transport craft. Tech specifications way above even the space shuttle." I read out aloud.

The second silhouette I had actually seen before, right here in the Atlantis hangar bay. I had even told Steve what I thought it was!

" What the heck? Second Viper?" I blurted out loud and left the command console in a run.

On the way down I was informed that all three craft had landed safely, and that Steve was waiting for me in the hangar.

It would have been a record time had i been an athlete.

I found a nearly empty bay, with two Vipers and the boxy looking shuttlecraft parked near the end of it. Noone else was around.

" Bill over here, in the shuttlecraft. " with a little due hesitation, I walked up the ramp and entered the shuttle.

Steve waited for me as I came in.

After lettling loose a string of colourfull curses from my Navy days, I told him I was glad to see he was okay. He answered with a polite smile, then turned serious.

" You gotta hear this, Bill. I think we're in for some serious shit here." Steve gave me a summary of what he had been told. Also he told me who had told him.

" Is he here?"

" Yes he is. I'll make the introductions." I followed Steve to the front of the shuttle. When we got there, two figures dressed in brown uniforms got up. I noticed the huge laser pistol the younger one was carrying in a holster whereas the older man didn't carry one at all.

What made him stand out however was the gold braid. In the Navy you wore that much gold only if you were in long, and at least some kind of skipper or even an admiral. For some reason I started to wonder who this guy really was.

When we met, he clasped my wrist, also making me grab his own " Commander Cain of the Battlestar Pegasus. It is an honor to shake hands with the first commander of the thirteenth tribe."

" Captain William Adams, US Navy, commanding officer Atlantis. The honor is all mine sir."

From somewhere amongst the heavens, there were brief signs of relief. " At least first contact went well." John noticed as he and Adama watched. " Yes, if it was one thing Cain knew, it was how to seize a moment."

" Can he get the job done with the Atlantis crew?"

" He's the only one who can. There are no others anymore, and Apollo is needed with the Galactica and the fleet."

" You seem to forget me, John."

" On the contrary, I haven't forgotten you, Iblis. You are the reason we still keep watch over this universe. "

" Yes, a universe alight with the flames of war, and the flames of those who worship me!" The demon had place particular emphasis on himself.

" Perhaps, perhaps not. You forget one thing, man its free will. There may be those who choose to follow you freely and live in the dark. There are those who follow the gods and walk in the light, there are also those who choose to stand between Dark and Light and protect those who darkness preys on. Do not interfere with the Galactica and her fleet, Iblis." Adama answered

The only answer he got was Iblis'mocking laughter as the prince of darkness faded away again.


	4. Chapter 4

We soon left for one of the Atlantis conference rooms where we also got the

We soon left for one of the Atlantis conference rooms where we also got the  
proper introduction.

"Commander Cain, Commander of the Battlestar Pegasus of the Twelve Colonies of Man." Wheter or not it was his official title I don't know and quite frankly, I didn't even care. All I did was wonder why I wasn't looking at a little green man from Mars.

"My ship was build in a system of twelve planets, inhabited by between  
seventy and a hundred billion people. In one night of genocide on a massive  
scale, the twelve worlds, who had stood and fought the Cylons for a thousand  
yahrens were reduced to two Battlestars and a fleet of twohundred and twenty ships, carrying what is left of a once thriving civilization."

Cain knew how to work with the equipment in the room. That much was clear to me as an image of the Galactica and the fleet she was escorting appeared on the monitor.

He then played another show card.

With a few other buttons he brought up a holographic image of nothing less  
then Earth's entire solar system with three highlighted areas in it.

Wtih his swagger stick Cain pointed at the first highlighted area. "This is  
Earth, with the Atlantis on it. My goal, Commander Adams, is to get you and your crew ready for the fight against the Cylons." Yet another image, this one of a robotic creature sporting a huge sword along with a rifle was brought up.

"I know this isn't much, but this is a realistic example of a Cylon Centurion infantry unit. There are others like pilots who fly their ships we  
have classified as raiders." The Pegasus Commander went on to elaborate.

A few hours later, we finally got to the end of things "The reason I'm here  
is to help you. I'm here to help you and your crew prepare, and the clock is  
ticking against us."

I exhaled "The first thing would be to get the senior staff in here, along  
with Admiral Schulz. Then we can start planning, Commander Cain."

We waited a bit until everybody showed up. Cain repeated his briefing for the  
admiral, who turned everything from shades of gray to beat red as Cain told the story of the Twelve Colonies again. And to top it off he had to cancel all kinds of warnings from NORAD and an assortement of other defense commands as well.

"Luckily we have more then enough scholars and scientists on this ship to  
discuss the ramifications of what you've just told me. But that's not the issue  
here." There was a rather ominous silence now.

I knew the information Cain gave had some serious repercussions and it would  
put the weight of the world on a number of peoples shoulders, including mine. We would each have our own way of dealing with it.

My way was to shift ahead. The information Cain had given about the Galactica indicated to me that we were going to have to go out and get to her, and finally escort her to Earth. But how were we going to do that?

We would need time to train, to prepare, and then to produce the stuff needed to defend ourselves with. I realised then that we were going to have to work fast and told the admiral accordingly.

"I know Bill, I'll have to go through this with Washington though. In the  
meantime, I do agree with the Commander here that we need to prepare, and fast."

"What is Washington?" Commander Cain then asked, a tinge of another accent  
now beginning to show up in his English.

"Washington is our nations capital. It is there where the Departement Of  
Defense, the institution that does all the paperwork, controls and oversees the budgets for the armed forces is located."

"You mean the politicians control the money?" This came from the younger guy that had been with Cain.

"No sir, the politicians are controlled by elected representatives of the  
people. Though I must admit sometimes even these ladies and gentlemen can be quite the slackers in their task." I explained.

"Sounds like they're not much different then ours were." Cain commented

"Or are." the young pilot with him added.

"Quite correct. May I take this moment to introduce to you my Strike  
Captain, Captain Starbuck." I shook hands with the young man who had all the looks of a veteran already.

Steve now joined the little group. "I believe the CAG here will want to talk  
to you."

"I already have sir. The Strike Captain and a few of his merry men  
intercepted me over the moon, jamming my systems and bringing me to the Pegasus. The rest you know."

Right then and there, the floor shook as if we had received a direct hit from  
something.

A few seconds later, there was a ping from the intercom in the room.

"Captain, we just got a report of an explosion and fire near one of the fuel  
tanks." At the word fuel, Cain and his strike captain were the first out of the  
door. I was hot on their trail.

Coming out on one of the lower deck express elevators, I could smell smoke  
already. Having past the third corridor, I felt a semblance of heat rolling  
towards me.

Cain and Starbuck were already heading back towards me.

"It's a Solium fire! We need to get in touch with the Pegasus, my crew has  
the experiment and the equipment to deal with this!" Cain had to shout get over the roar of the flames.

"Alright! How much time do we have?" A fuel fire, even onboard a ship was a  
pretty risky affair and I felt we would need all the help we could get,  
understanding alien technology or not.

With some trickery we managed to get three shuttles full of fire fighting  
equipment from the Pegasus through to the base.

Three hours and a lot of worries later, we started to clean up and  
investigate. Engineers from the Pegasus, who shuttled down with a fourth  
shuttle, were included in the investigation. This cooperation produced results  
within a week. I considered myself fortunate that no lives were lost, and  
promptly also requested a training detail from the Pegasus engineering staff.  
Hoping in this way I could prevent accidents like this from occuring again.

For myself I had even worse taskmaster. Cain himself.

With the command crew assembled to the best of my abillity, and with a little  
help from the admiral, Cain was going to mentor us in some battle excercises. In the meantime, with the fighter wing now assembled, Steve would have to prove his cunning against Starbuck.

It would be an interesting night afterwards at the officers club. Of that  
much I was certain. I put the thoughts behind me as I entered the room Cain had dubbed 'The Academy.'

'The Academy' was just that, a classroom with a number of star charts on the  
walls. And this was only the beginning. I had been informed that once ready the ultimate test of Atlantis and her crew would be a simulated battle against  
Cain's Pegasus!

"Come in, Captain Adams." Cain met me at the door. To my own embarrassment I came in dead last. With the exception of the CAG, everyone was there. " Please take your seat quickly, captain. We're about to begin."

I took a table near the edge of the room and readied my notepad, pencil and  
PDA.  
"lady and gentlemen, the objective of this class is rather simple." Cain  
began. "To win a battle against a numerical superior enemy whilst making a  
maximum effort to conserve your resources. Or, was one of the more vocal  
military figures of Earth's past put it 'it's not about dying for your planet,  
it's about making some poor dumb bastard die for his.' "Nearly the entire room  
erupted into laughter, with me joining in as well.

As I noticed Cain starting to get a little agitated I requested silence from  
the class. Once I had this I started to explain "Commander, the man you  
misquoted is from another service, the Army to be exact. We generally call each other a few names at the yearly sports match, but usually get along just fine."

Cain coughed a bit "Looks like you have some explaining to do, Captain." I  
smiled "Aye sir." The class went on.

"First up, are defensive operations. All present here know that offense is  
the best defense but, when the offensive momentum is on the other side, what would you do to stop them. For that I suggest taking a look at map one."

Map one was a star chart of the Earth solar system. A number of courses had  
been layed out. Half of them in red, the other half in blue.

"The blue courses note the primary civilian traffic lanes. The red courses  
show possible enemy approaches. Captain Adams, find a solution which prevents the enemy from massacring your civilians and supply routes."

I went up front and took a marker pen.

Most of the courses ended near Earth. Since Earth was closest to the  
defensive systems, I didn't really bother to do any thing about that. My  
attention came to Mars first.

Here, four red tracks passed periously close to any kind of base that would  
be on the planet. I marked Mars with a circle and wrote Viper base or Viper  
patrol or small vessel. I followed the tracks further on. I found a curve near  
the solar systems edge which I couldn't trace.

Ignoring it, I studied the area a bit further, until I reached the edge of the  
asteroid belt. Here I put in Ambush spot with a question mark at the end. After all, would anybody that was looking for trouble, be the ambusher or the  
ambushed?

Having made a few more notes on the map I took to my seat again.

Cain began studying my answers before he decided to let the colonel have a  
go.

He didn't say anything as she sat down again.  
When everyone had his turn, the dvd player was activated.

"This recordings has been constructed with every bit of available data on  
the battle of Gamoray. It was here that the Galactica and Pegasus facing three Cylon baseships and the Cylon garrison on the planet, conducted a surprise attack to obtain fuel. The attack commenced after the fighter detachements of both ships beat back an assault on the Galactica and her fleet."

Again that pause. That unsettling pause when he shuffles his notes and looks  
how the others react. For some reason our training officer is nervous.

I decide to talk to him about it later and return my attention to the data  
stream being played.

Four hours later, I sit amazed. Wthin that timeframe, I watched a simulation  
of how a commando team dropped onto a hostile planet, destroyed a command center and secured a fuel dump. Then I watched how the fuel tankers came in and carted off every drop of fuel they could carry.

After that came the interesting part. The screen changed to a plotting map of  
a star system and showed the two Battlestars in position near the planet. One of them then departed, making a straight heading for the onrushing horde of what looked to be Cylon raiders.

At a distance, the first Vipers are launched. The fighters build a formation  
in front of the Battlestar and go to work against the Cylon raiders. They  
promptly and smartly shoot a hole through the formation large enough for the  
Pegasus to pass through unhindered.

Things got really interesting after that.

I watched as the Pegasus appeared near two Cylon Baseships while a third  
began falling back.

Just before the battlestar came into range, I noticed how two Vipers appeared from behind her and commenced strafing runs on some target not visible to the viewer.

A voice spoke "I'm seeing some pretty heavy damage on and near the flank  
missile launchers."

"Excellent, prepare all missiles for launch, when we're in between them,  
we'll give it to them. Not even their defensive measures will help them."

I watched the range go down.

At barely minimum range, the command was given " fire!"

The recording then showed how first one then the other Cylon Basestar  
vanished into nothing after illuminating the darkness of space with the moment of its destruction.

"Then we spend a while in hiding, repairing and trailing the refugee fleet.  
Now we are here and the rest you know. Class will reconvene tomorrow at 0900. Class dismissed." We filed out of the room, each of my command staff going their own separate ways. I went to the bridge. I wanted to check on the flight academy that Starbuck would be giving to Steve and his pilots.

The audio assault on my ears was convincing enough that neither side was  
yielding in somekind of unrelenting battle.

"Wow, did anyone see that?"

"Yeah, those guys up front slowed down allowing the high guys to come in and finish you off, effective." A female voice remarked. Apparently this pilot I  
hadn't met yet.

"That means you're out, see you back at the Barn Bull."

"Roger that, RTB. Give 'em hell for me."

"Don't worry, I just got two of them in one pass, That should equal the  
score." This time the voice was Steve.

"Dog, watch out! Six o clock."

"Thanks skipper." The pilot with callsign Dog responded.

Since we were basically near Nellis, I figured it couldn't hurt to get in  
some time in the Red Flag area. Part of that airspace was not used by civilian  
traffic anyway so we would have nearly free reign during our practice and  
training sessions.

Naturally, we had a friendly word with the Pentagon reporters in the area, so  
after a week of training there were no reports of aliens being sighted in the  
area. Also, we didn't have any accidents. It would hurt our efforts if we had,  
the fuel fire still gave me nightmares at times, and I could do without those  
complications for now.

Classes at the 'Academy' continued at a more rapid pace now. Cain proved  
himself to be more of a Marine drill sergeant then commander of a warship. It  
wasn't until much later that I found out why.

The last part of 'The Academy' would soon commence.

The mock battle which would put us against the Pegasus, in space. After that  
trial, we would lay the finishing touch on Atlantis by comissioning her and  
undertaking her maiden voyage along with the first mission, which would be to  
find the Galactica!

Again we entered the room, awaiting judgement like any midshipman in his  
final year at Annapolis.

Cain was smiling from ear to ear.

"Glad to see all of you. You may be seated." Like obedient schoolchildren we  
all sat down.

The time seemed to stand still. Cain reshuffled his notes for a moment and  
then started with me.

"Commander Adams, I'll start with you. Your answers were the most  
surprising, and also made the most sense. It would seem you have some pretty good ideas on how to defend the system. We'll see how well you do in the mock battle."

The Colonel was next. She didn't get berated for her agresive tactics. This  
was a bit of news for me, Cain recommended her to me as my XO. All the others turned out exactly as I had expected.

Now all that was left to see was how they would hold up under pressure


	5. Chapter 5

5

5

With our command crew declared ready by Commander Cain, launch preparations and crew training took on a whole new meaning. One issue that came up was damage control. The Pegasus CAG, Captain Starbuck, told me a rather harrowing tale of how he and his former CO were nearly stranded in space after having set solonite charges on the Galactica hull when a Cylon attack had caused a major fire.

That the principle worked however was one thing he vividly remembered, It was the application he said that could use some refinement.

In the meantime trucks started coming with everything and more. It varied from food to spares for anything and everything from Earth that we carried.

This being a Navy vessel, though yet uncomissioned, somebody very probably succeeded in getting booze aboard and stowed in a hidden cache.

It didn't bother me that they tried for that showed resourcefullness to me. I would be very pissed if anyone worked with this technology if they were drunk though.

Something, or rather someone else that bothered me, was Commander Cain. During his last visit, he had looked a little worse for wear. Slight trouble breathing and some trouble with his walking were amongst the things I noticed. Just prior to the launch day, Cain had even elected to stay aboard his ship.

Some of the newly installed ESM gear told me that he was watching things from just beyond the Moon.

A bit more surprising was the fact that we were able to jam Pegasus scanners now, though only partially.

Though no launch date was set like it is on shuttle missions, our systems checklist continued unabated. As soon as they were complete, we would launch.

In the meantime practice continued for the fighter wing and now for the crew as well at an unrelenting pace. I was just happy that we didn't get any accidents.

I also attended one of the marine gunners training sessions. Here, I watched Starbuck's wing in action again. Simulating Cylon fighters, they came in at angles as the Marines tried to track them. The Marines had a 65 percent kill ratio against the Vipers.

Colonel Merryweather explained it to me "Most of my boys and girls love playing video games, sir. With setups like these, they don't miss."

As an afterthought she added "Heck, Captain Starbuck had us targeting stuff from the base first. Compared to this, those Hornets were a milk run."

"Is it really going to be that though up there?"

I nodded positively with regards to her answer "probably even thougher."

"You know Commander Cain's briefing as well as I do. I figure we can expect at the very least a target rich enviroment. Just tell your boys and girls to be spot on with their first shots, or at least try. That mock battle against the Pegasus will be a real killer, if we are to believe Cain."  
For myself I didn't really have any illusions about the battle. Cain would very probably kick our collective buts around the moon and back.

But it would serve as a very needed excercise to see if everything worked and give us some much more needed experience.

My thoughts were interupted by the communications panel buzzer going of. I immediatly switched on the panel.

"Yes, what is it?"

"Sir, communications are picking signals from the Pegasus, it seems she's under attack!"

The words were out of my mouth before I even realised it. "Start launch preparations, I'm on way."

I ran to the bridge.

An ensign handed me a headset as I got there, over it came the following message "Battlestar Pegasus to Atlantis, we have been attacked by superior Cylon forces, request help immediatly." The rest fizzled out into static.

I looked at Caldwell who was in the command pit "Message repeats after that, sir. She still seems to be near Mars, as far as scanners can tell."

"Status on launch preparations?"

"Hatches are secured. All personnel present and accounted for. Engines and power system on standby."

"Set the ship to condition two, then warn Groom Lake to clear the area for departure." The standard Navy answer of 'Aye sir' soon followed.

My crew responded better to me then Groom Lake did. It took the base ATC 30 minutes to clear the area.

By then we were ready. "Allright, power to thrusters, helm take us up."

From the outside it looked as if Atlantis was rumbling, indeed as if the entire area was rumbling. Soon the first whiff of exhaust fumes turned into a torrent of smoke as thrusters did their work.

The tremors and rumblings seized as Atlantis arose.

Much like the now ancient Space shuttle, Atlantis left a plume of smoke as she rose.

Although we didn't have a clue as far as plasma or any kind of other fuel residue was concerned, I had already decided to play it safe. We would light main engines at threehundred thousand feet up. Then we'd rotate the bow upwards, and 'boldly go wher no man had gone before'.

As I watched the digital altimeter numbers climb, I ordered the main engines to standby.

When the numbers clicked over, I gave the order.

Just like the firing of the thrusters, the startup of the main engines gave a brief rumble which quickly subsided as Atlantis began to move forward. All of this was visible through the forward porthole.

"Bow at fifteen degrees positive bubble, beginning climb at maximum velocity." A voice in the distance announced. I watched the helm controls on the floow below the command dais move in concert.

While were climbing out to space, I did another com check with Caldwell "Any more messages from Pegasus?"

The young lieutenant shook his head. "No sir, just receiving static on all channels."

In the meantime another report reached my ears "Artificial gravity has kicked in." A quick look around showed no objects, or people for that matter, were in anyway free floating over the deck.

Somewhat later, I got confirmation. "We're officially in space, sir."

"Good, congratulations on a job well done, now set a course for the Pegasus last known location, then go EMCON, and stay on condition 2."

With Atlantis on EMCON, I hoped we would not be picked up through our electronic emissions. Although it would mean the men manning the passive sensors would have to be on their toes. In this way the waiting game began.

Not waiting however, was the Commander of Cylon baseship 3058. Aware of the electronic signals eminating from the solar system his ship was now entering, the commander figured it a worthy investigation.

Perhaps he might even find the still at large battlestar Galactica and her fleet!

Although it was standard practice by both the Colonials and the Cylon empire to send out patrols, this time the Commander refused to do so. The electronic signals, which included some Master Control identified as 'entertainement broadcasts', left no doubt to the Commander that he was on the trail of yet another human settlement.

"Launch a patrol, minimum force. They are to reconnoiter this system, but do nothing else. Have them fly to their maximum patrol range, then return."

The reply the Command Centurion got was the same since the very first Cylon was activated and received instruction, "By your command."

Not much later a squadron of the well known and feared Cylon raiders left their baseship, on a trek deeper into the system.

"Passive sensor contacts, bearing 355 by 10 by minus 85." At the mention of the word contacts I figured we had picked up a Pegasus patrol that was looking for us. I walked over to the scanner station and asked for an update.

The senior sailor manning one of the consoles looked at his screen while talking to me " A few minutes ago we picked up some contacts that tunred out to be a squadron size formation, for some reason they're using the planets to mask their approach to Earth."

Textbook scouting approach, using every available means of cover was the first thought to enter my mind. "Continue to track them, and see if you can come up with a point of departure."

"Aye sir."

A quick look at the plotboard showed a squadron formation of red Xs appearing near one of the moons of Jupiter. "Get the pilots to five minute readiness."

In another part of the ship, a speaker began to broadcast "All pilots to their ships, launch status is ready 5."

Before running out to join his pilots, the CAG made a mental note to call the bridge.

"Hangar bays reported pilots at their fighters, oh and Captain, the CAG wants a word."

"Put him on."

"We're tracking them, squadron strength, heading in system." Steve knew the mission parameters as well as I did.

"Their version or ours? "

"For now we're assuming its the Pegasus wing, still too far to get confirmation from Jane's though, so we're tracking them on passives and trying to establish where they came from."

"Good call, for once I'd really like to surprise that card shark." There was a bit of an edge with that last remark I knew Starbuck loved games and that he had played against Steve and his pilots on several occassions, beating them at Pyramid (the Colonial version of poker).

Once he started to teach them the game things didn't change all that much, a rumor had circulated that he was suspected of cheating. For some reason the rumor persisted after the guys tought the captain how to play poker.

Add to that Starbuck beating Steve's wing a number of times before they got their act together. It could get ugly in there. "Thanks CAG, don't let it get out of hand though." I warned him.

"I won't." He switched off. I didn't feel any better, yet.

An alarmed voice cried out, "Captain, they're on course for Earth!"

I ran back to the scanner station.

"We're still working on backtracking sir, but these bozos are on course for Earth. The're acting as if we're not even there."

"Alright, increase speed just enough to come into range to identify them."

"Aye sir."

Atlantis picked up speed. I watched yet another meter tick down. "In range, activating Jane's."

There was an ominous silence which persisted for a few minutes.

The warbook sequenced through all compatible craft indicated by sensor data profile and narrowed down to one entry.

"It's them." The scanner tech breathed in that surreal moment, then composed himself.

"Targets identified, multi-person ships, they're not Vipers!, no Human life signs."

"Battlestations! Launch fighters, arm all anti-fighter batteries and ready damage control." The usual day hue we had installed on the bridge turned to red as a siren began whailing.

Another monitor showed the Vipers launching. Luckily Cain's planning allowed for the launch of only one squadron of said Vipers. I knew Steve would be leading them.

"Let's get to work people, wingmen protect your leaders and watch out for the pinwheel attack." The Vipers swiftly closed the distance and engaged.

From monitors and scanners I watched as deaths fiery blossoms filled the space near Atlantis.

The Cylon Squadron Commander noticed something particular about the engagement as his weapons officer blasted a Viper into nothingness.

"Contact our Baseship, inform them these are not Colonial Humans we are engaging."

"Unable to comply, we are being jammed." By then they could see what was jamming them.

"Another Battlestar is responsible for the jamming. Concentrate all attacks." Like a fly on honey, they came.

"Aegis Alpha." Was my only response to the report the remaining Cylons were coming our way. In another part of the ship, not to far away from the bridge, a key was turned which shifted a computer into another targetting mode.

Things went very fast from there on out.

First I felt the launches. Augmented SR5 surface-to-air missiles were the first shots fired in anger by Atlantis herself. The 5 round salvo took out three of its intended targets with the two other missiles missing.

Then Colonel Merryweather came on the air, asking me to release the guns.

"Guns released, go get them." From the screens I watched the shooting begin. Four Cylons fell immediatly to surprisingly accurate fire.

The half dozen others that now remained returned fire, making me recieve damage reports about hits on the superstructure. Fortunately, there were no hull breaches, yet. By then some of the Vipers returned.

With their help, the six remaining raiders were soon blasted out of the stars.

I breathed a short sign of relief. "Get me the CAG, I want an update on his situation."

Not much later Steve's voice appeared in my headset "Captain, we got nearly all of them. Losses appear to be light but I'd have to check once we're back at the barn, out."

Again Thomas Caldwell approached me "Sir, we've managed to back track their course."

He looked at me as I breathed out "Alright, recover the fighters and go stealth again, then see if we can't surprise them." Caldwell nodded and moved away from me. Myself, I headed to the plot board to find the Colonel waiting for me.

" Colonel, what brings you down here?"

" Just wanted to know if I need to prepare my gunners for ship to ship combat, sir."

I didn't look at her but continued to study the map. " It's a distinct possibillity, colonel, very distinct."

She trotted off to her own command module which had been constructed a short distance from the command bridge. It was an empty compartiment that the Marines had reconstructed into a command module with my permission. From the data on the war provided by Commander Cain one of the things we realized that it might be feasible to have a backup command centre at some distance from the bridge. Incase of a direct hit that would disable the bridge, the secondary bridge would take over operations and either remove any threat or remove the ship from danger.

"I want heavy missile crews on standby."

We sailed or flew, I wasn't sure yet of the definition, further on into the solar system, looking for trouble and this time, we were using the full active scanner suite we found on the ship.

Things were interesting to say the least. "Send the data feeds toi the science teams. Maybe they can figure out what we're seeing."

Not all that soon thereafter, Serena Quinn appeared on the bridge. As the head of my science departement, and also now a Lieutenant Commander, she had the job of finding out how Atlantis got to Earth.

It wasn't a job I envied.

"How are you doing, Serena?" She seemed lost in the stars as I asked the question.

Without looking she answered me "Not too bad, considering I never been shot at before." After a pause and before I could ask more she added " Is it always like this?"

"Getting shot at, I'm afraid so." I told her about one of the times I was on a carrier that was under attack. "Just don't get over it. I find it something of an edge that can get you out of a predicament if needed."

She nodded and continued to gaze at the stars. " Ever wonder what's out there?"

I gave Serena the only answer I knew "Trouble." And decided to leave it there. There was still a Cylon Baseship on the loose in the solar system, and it needed to be found and taken care of, or else...

"There's a quite a few place to hide in the solar system." I commented as the plot screen was updated with new information received by the scannners. The Colonel, who by now rejoined me, remarked that it would be hell to defend the place.

I agreed with her and started wondering if she had already 'consulted' some of her own more talented officers about opinions on the matter.

When Jupiter came up blank, except for a lot of scientific data, we headed for Saturn.

And again, the senior Centurion strode in to report to his commander "Sensors are picking up an approaching Battlestar."

The Basestar, having detected the jamming, was in hiding near the rings of Saturn. Later reports would put them squarely in the middle of said rings, but it just wasn't true. The Basestar was out of the rings, maneuvering in a rather odd pattern.

I started to worry as it began to ascend. We were in range to see her on any screens. Just not in effective range for a combined assault. "Match that!" I shouted to no one in particular as a strange light began to glow near one of the bottom tops that made up the bottom half of something that for lack of better comprehension looked like two spinning tops.

By then, everything started to happen at once.

The scanners reported the Pegasus diving and firing for all she was worth, following by both sides (except us) launching fighters. As Pegasus dove it carried her just in front of us and the Baseship fired. Her first shot hit the Pegasus on the bridge sector. The second and third shots missed. The Pegasus however, started to thumble for a bit.

By then we had put some distance between the battle and ourselves. Time to change that.

"Battlestations! Launch all fighters, tell the Cag he's to help the Pegasus's fighters with those Raiders. Power to the entire weapons grid! Helm bring us around. Gunnery crew engage that Basestar. Missile crews on standby."

Atlantis and the Cylon Basestar started exchanging shots with their respective secondary batteries. I called all scanner crews to keep their eyes open. I didn't want to go down the road of the Pegasus.

Apparently, Colonel Merryweather felt the same. I soon began noticing results as the counter fire from the Cylons began to decrease. Again I heard her voice in the headset "Captain, we shot you a clear corridor. Now finish her off!" It almost sounded as if she gave the order herself.

"Helm, bring us to spitting range."

On the main scanner screen near the console, the little dot that was essentially the Basestar started to get bigger.

This time I'd take a page fron Cain, fire a point-blank anti-ship volley and roll clear at the very last moment.

At the increased speed, it didn't take long for Atlantis to get there.

Apparently the Cylons didn't get the memo about the suicidal tactic from Gamoray (since no Cylons survied that engagement) so the machine logic was momentarily stunned at the illogical move. At pont blank range they had trouble locking on with their secondary guns.

And with an eerily familiar rumble, the enormous missiles erupted from their cradles and flew forward like a swarm of angry hornets. Again I was surprised at the Marines' uncanny accuracy with this weaponry and the laser cannons Atlantis carried for defense.

The Cylon Basestar disappeared in a multiple flashes of light.

"Contact the Cag, ask him for a status report. And, I want Lieutenant Cain up here ASAP."

The Navy Seal got to the bridge rather quickly.

"David, it's a SAR mission. I want you and your team to go over to the Pegasus and see if there are survivours. Bring them back if there are any, then asses the damage. See if she can be repaired or if it's worse." Cain nodded and left the bridge.

Flight control reported a group of three shuttles leaving not much later.

To my own silent relief, they reached the Pegasus without getting in to any trouble. Moments later, the message reached me that they had landed.

In the starboard landing bay of the Pegasus things were a bit of a mess. A number of people were trying their best with damage control efforts, whilst some others were also working on a number of wounded. Cain directed one of his detachment's medics to help.

Leaving a four man team in the bay, he and the others set off in the direction of the bridge.

Working their way farther in, it soon became clear to Cain that the Battlestar had taken rather serious damage. But what was more telling was the damage control efforts by the crew. Did they know something he didn't? Cain didn't stop to wonder as the team moved on.

They made it to the Pegasus bridge, or what was left of it, in nearly record time.

A partial collapse was the first thing they saw. A number of beams had fallen down from the ceiling and had crushed a couple of panels and crewmember manning them. Others, as all the Seals could see, had been burned, or possibly even electrocuted.

Most of the present medics however were focused on the command dais.

The Navy Lieutenant Commander did something rather uncharacteristic then. He rushed up there as well.

The scene he found was rather devastating. Only two medics were working on someone, with apparently all the effort they could muster.

The victim of it all wore the basic warrior uniform. However, there was one exception. Instead of there being nothing on his shoulders, like the common warrior, the victim sported gold braid.

He worked his way onward.

What Lieutenant Commander David Cain saw shocked him to the core.

" Granddad?"


	6. Chapter 6

6

6

We had been the lucky ones.

That was pretty much all there was to say about our first battle with the Cylons. Losses were relatively light, and we were in better condition then the Pegasus, but that's were everything ended.

We now carried nearly all the fighters of the stricken Battlestar aboard as well. And, I had two men in my cabin. Each having their own pressing reasons to talk to me, and each would also receive bad news in turn.

I started off with Starbuck. For some reason the Colonial Captain had a rather gloomy feeling about him. Perhaps word of Commander Cain's condition had reached the Captain. It had certainly reached me. And the bottom of it all was, the Commander of the Pegasus was in a coma.

On top of that, nearly all the other senior officers, with the exception of her Chief Engineer, were dead, or not expected to recover from their injuries. The list even included the XO. It left me with a rather difficult situation. To which I would apply a creative solution. Heck, it's one of the things I was paid for.

"Please sit down, Captain." It wasn't an order, it was a request.

"I want to thank you and your pilots for getting there when they did, you saved all of our collective asses." The Colonial smiled, only briefly. "Don't mention it." was his only sullen reply.

"Now, as far as I've been told, the bridge of the battlestar is in shambles and will have to be rebuild. My own technical staff is looking into the matter and have a few options they're preparing." I didn't bother too much with the details. There was something in store for the Captain that would demand far more of him.

"Before we discuss this matter any further, there is something else I must tell you however." I paused, preparing for what was to come. "As of now, we know you're the only surviving senior officer. Under the current US Navy regulations, I am hereby placing you in command of the Battlestar Pegasus."

"Look, you've worked with both sides here. I don't want to bring in anyone from Earth to deal with this now. That's not going to work, not here, not after this." I sighed, having run out of words.

The look I got in return was telling enough. The Captain went from 'I don't want command like this' to 'what other choice do I have' in just a few moments. I figured he was going to have to be watched, since Colonials react the same as Earthers in regards to stress, and boy did he just get a bucketfull. Then there was also the fact that I didn't want to loose my only training officer.

No, it was the best way. The repercussions I would deal with later.

For now I tried to reign it in and keep everyone's mind on the job, it's the only way to deal with these kind of situations.  
"Right Commander Starbuck, let's see how we can prevent this from ever happening again."

He was initially hesitant, but after a minute or so managed to compose himself enough to get on track. I found myself taking notes through the entire conversation and in the end we agreed upon a new training plan.

Starbuck and David Cain ran into each other briefly as the first one exited my office and the second came in.

"Alright Lieutenant-Commander have a seat." I'd heard that Seals rarely flinch, considering the stunts they pulled, but David Cain looked like had flinched, quite bad.

"Your report please."

A contrast in expresion sat before me. Where Starbuck was mostly subdued and stonefaced, David was the opposite. He looked a little peaked and obviously was shaken by something. He started his report off a little fast.

"The best starting point would seem to be the Pegasus hangar bay sir. We found quite a number of people working damage control, but they looked like they were running around as headless chickens. I detailed a medic and some of the guys to help, and maybe organize the place a bit for any kind of follow up force. Then I took the others deeper into the ship. On our way we found a number of injured people, not many though. Some of my men helped them get back to the landing bay. I took the rest of the team forward to the bridge."  
"The issue seems to have occured on the Pegasus bridge."

"Yes sir. The issue is that Commander Cain is a spitting image lookalike of my grandfather. And I nearly shouted it out."

It took a little while to sort everything.

"What else did you do?"

"Upon our return I contacted the head of the ship's science team and asked if I could see her to talk about this."

"Alright, consider what you saw classified, for now. The same principle applies to any men in your unit that saw the same. I'll have word with Doctor Quinn about this. You can consider yourself dismissed."

One problem partially solved, the other one somewhat solved. Perhaps we did indeed have a good reason to find the Galactica.

My attention was again returned to the stack of reports on my desk. Atlantis would need work for this undertaking, lots of work.

Amongst other things, training would need to resume, and at a much faster pace. Next into the room was my CAG.

He looked somewhat glum.

"I lost six guys today." My response was utter silence. Utter silence that was only disturbed by the sound of the machinery in my quarters and the soft rumble of the engines.

"Replacements?" Steve shook his head "No, as I've got two carrier wings, I'll leave the guys we've got left from that unit as a reserve flight." Then Steve had another question for me "Now what?"

"We prepare. If Cain's lessons on the Cylons were correct, they won't look for their baseship for at least six more months. That should give us the time to do two things. Prepare defences and find the Galactica. After that…." I let the rest of my comment be .

Steve then left as well, wanting to prepare his fighter wing.

I headed back up to the bridge to oversee the towing of the Pegasus.

Training would commence in conjunction with the repairs.

6B

In a different sector of space, far away from Earth's prying telescopes and other assorted space surveillance devices, a ship not unlike the Pegasus still herded along its flock of twohundred and eighteen vessels that carried the last remnant of their society.

In her hangar bay, there was a little gossip, some rumour and a lot of noise as the newest class of Cadets was given the grand tour of the one of the most important parts of the Battlestar.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the hangar bay." The Cadet instructor as usual always wore the uniform of a Colonial Warrior. This one was no different, except that he sported the rank pins of a Major. "This is where it begins for a number of you, with your first look at that pinnacle of technological achievement, the Viper."

The group had come to a halt near one of the many sleek fighters in the bay. Like the others, this one was resting comfortably on its launchbed, in preparation of its next mission. A number of techs, always present in their orange overals, were in the proces of checking systems and conducting small repairs. This was a proces that was repeated with most of the other ships present in the bay and near the group.

After allowing his group a close visual inspection, the Major began to list the particulars. "The Viper is the main vehicle of defense and intelligence for the Battlestar. She goes out on longrange scouting mission, probing the depths of space for any kind of resource for the fleet, not to mention what's out there. But her main reason along with Galactica, is defense, defense of those ships we've learned to call home."

The Major then went on to explain some more technical details. "She primarily carries two laser cannons capable of variable power output. Quite handy in training, when you don't want to hurt but definetly hit the other guy." It caused a few chuckles in the group. "For secondaries, a payload of 3 Solonite missiles can be mounted ventrally mainly for strategic missions, but her real claim to fame is not her weaponry, but rather her three engines. They make the Viper the fastest known fighter in space even to this day. And make no mistake, you'll need every ounce of speed you can get from them."

The Major went on to describe a short combat between himself and a Cylon fighter. Then he told a different story. "You all went through the Cimtar program, right?" A bunch of heads nodded. "So I don't have to tell you anymore about engine damage, right?"

"No sir." One of the females in the back answered.

There was only one of the Cadets amongst them who could also know the Cimtar story before entering training. "Cadet Karia, front and center."

She was petite, almost like her mother, and carried a full head of blonde hair. Her eyes however, were brown, and had much of the stare of her father grown into them. At the Major's request she repeated for the class how the two sons of Commander Adama, arguably one of the best Battlestar Commanders in Colonial history, had stumbled upon the Cylon attackforce that would destroy the fleet and how one had to leave the other behind to give warning.

Just as she finished, the red alert lights came on in the bay and the siren started its eery whail.

A few microns after that, two of the Vipers carried out a high speed landing. One of them was soon surrounded by damage control and medical teams.  
Much like the rest of her class, including the Commandant himself, Cadet Karia was surprised to see the Galactica's commanding officer come running into the flight bay at a full head of steam.

Moments later, the emergency crews had taken the pilot out of the first viper. As she saw who it was, Cadet Karia broke into a run and followed, despite her class Commander's objections to the contrary.

Apollo, son of Adama, holder of the Seal of Kobol and Commander of the Battlestar Galactica had reached the starboard hangar bay in record time. They were still putting her on the stretcher when he got there.

Knowing better than to jump in and be a nuscience, Apollo let the medics tend to their trade while he intended on questioning the other pilot who had just gotten out of his fighter and rapidly came over to the crowd.

That 'other' pilot was Boxey, his adopted son and currently a Lieutenant in Blue squadron under the command of none other then Boomer, stopped near Apollo as he saw the medics working on his stepmother.

Apollo leaned in close to him scarecely able to keep his emotionally charged voice between a shout and a whisper, "What happened?"

Boxey himself looked as if he was about to freak "We were just chatting to pass the time and all of a sudden she went absolutely quiet." Boxey paused to take another look as the medics put Sheba on a stretcher and carried her off. "A little later I noticed her vector was drifting and when she wouldn't answer me I had to pull in really close to eyeball her, and it seemed as if she was shocked by something, I don't know what, and there was nothing on the instruments."

Something unusual had occurred out there on that patrol, the question was just what it could have been. Apollo had the techs pull the flight data from both Vipers and gave the contents a quick once over, knowing that the medical team would need some time to properly tend to Sheba.

Disappointed with the initial failure of the main computron to show any anomolies Apollo mumbled to himself, "I hope Cassie can figure it out."

The two men arrived at the life station somewhat later, where they found Cassie engrossed in directing a nurse to carry out some tests.

Cassie soon noticed her commanding officer and his son and trotted over. "Apollo, I was just on my way to call you. I've ran a complete battery of tests on Sheba, and I can't find anything!" Cassie was clearly frustrated, "Sheba shouldn't be catatonic like this. With the way she is now I'm not very confident we can get her out of it, but I think our only chance is if you find out what caused this."

Apollo looked at his unmoving sealed mate. She seemed to stare into the distance, not comprehending what was going on. Had he looked closer, The Commander of the Battlestar Galactica might have noticed she was trying to say something.

Whilst her lips didn't move, Sheba could clearly hear herself whispering "Father."


	7. Chapter 7

7

Without the help of our engineers, it was obvious that the Pegasus wouldn't be up and running again so soon. Though I did wonder about the state she was in. It looked like she could indeed do with a major overhaul. There was something else nagging in the back of my mind as well.

Basically, if we left with the two Battlestars, the Earth would be defenseless. A risk I would prefer not to take. A risk I would have to plan for though.

But with all the bad news I had been getting, there was some good news too. Area 51, the worlds "public secret", had managed to set up a Viper production line and get it going. At least we could now replenish some material losses.

Personnel losses would have to wait for a bit. There simply wasn't time to take that into account yet.

I also requested and got a shuttleflight over to the Pegasus to see in what state she was really in. Although she looked magnificent from the outside, with some repairs to the hull indeed visible, it was the inside where I was in for the shocker. Her bridge looked better then the last time David Cain had seen it, but that was pretty much all there was to it. Everywhere I went Colonials and Earthlings alike were working at full speed, repairing modifying or reconstructing sections of the damaged Battlestar.

I was amazed the ship was still in one piece, and even continued to run. It showed the versatility of the colonials to me and also thought me something about the strenght of their constructions. It also helped that although their computers has few networks, the overall design of every system on board a Battlestar was as modular as possible. This way of thinking was something that would defiantely come in handy at a later date.

Having seen enough, I asked to be taken to see the commander.

Starbuck was in his quarters on Alpha deck when his door chime went off. "Enter."

"I was expecting you, Captain Adams." I noticed a bottle containing a beverage on the table, open and with a small bit missing.

"I've taken command of a flying wreck, haven't I." He continued to stare into space, thinking who knows what. I nodded, "You have, from the looks of it."

"Now what?"

"Now we split preparations." This time I got the look that told me that he didn't understand what I was talking about. "Let me explain." And within half an hour, the commanding officer of the Pegasus was smiling again.

Some time later, back aboard Atlantis, Serena Quinn reported to me.

"Ah, Serena, good to see you, please sit down." I was standing near the porthole in the commanders quarters, examining the Pegasus as she drifted by. "I take it you don't have a problem with expanding the science team?"

She nodded. "Not quite, though I am happy with the extra staff, I'd appreciate if they weren't trying to take over and run the freaking place!" She had almost shouted the last part. An agitated scientist is not a productive one so I tried to calm her a bit, "Alright, alright, I'll have someone do something about it. Is there anything else?"

Again Serena nodded, "Yes there is. I'd like your permission to run a few long term experiments on the effects of space on Humans." I gave her the permission to do just that. Perhaps in the long run we'd be able to even establish a base on Mars, and counter any long term effects with such research.

"Allright then, you're dismissed, Lieutenant-Commander." She got up and left the room.  
Having had a good nights sleep, I found myself talking to Commander Starbuck via the communications panel the very next morning. "Allright, I've assembled my team. We'll be on the next shuttle over."

A simple thanks was all the reply he got.

I left my room and headed for the bridge.

The large plot board had been updated with any and all stellar information we could get from the scanners. The scopes were still clear from any kind of Cylon intentions. I briefly studied another data stream as it came in on the screens. A series of stellar phenomena was recorded and input in the computer.

As I looked back at the plot I realised what was happening.

We were recording navigational data.

I found Starbuck in one of the closeby conference rooms, looking at yet another data feed from the bridge.

"Studying the competition." I asked him. He didn't turn around but continued to look at the screen again "Something like that, Captain Adams."

"I saw the scanner feed. You prepping the ship for a hyperjump?" It was a rethorical question. Afcourse he was preparing the ship for a hyperjump. And, he was already extrapolating where his former homebase might be. I knew one thing then. Naming Starbuck as Commanding Officer of the Pegasus was probably one of the best things I did, I just hoped I wouldn't regret letting him have nearly unrestricted access to what is essentially a US Navy vessel.

We needed him and his small team though. We knew we could do a takeoff and landing and other assorted stuff, but things like long distance navigation, well that was so far out of our league as to not even begin working with it. I knew we would learn it in the long run though.

"Incase you're wondering what we're doing, I'm formulating a course track." Now I trotted over to see what the Colonial had been doing.

It was indeed a track. "What parameters did you have to work with?"

"Not much, I had to start to backtrack from Earth to the approximate position of the Colonies on the Pegasus star charts. From there I had to take our course as I first knew it, then add in the vector to Earth as once told to me by some higher beings then I had to work my way from there, using the speed of the slowest vessel as an estimate."

"Higher beings?"

"It's better you don't know about that sort of thing, at least not yet." And despite some hard trying, he didn't budge. Pretty soon we were back to the navigational matters. "It's pretty primitive track so far, but I believe it'll work."

He moved over so I could see. "And this is what it looks like?"

"Yep."

Mentally I started to figure out search patterns. The area we would have to search, was huge, and we would have to search it in 3d also. Before I was really into it, Starbuck interupted me with something else.

"You know, there is a way of narrowing the track, somewhat."

"Oh, how?" For some reason I was curious. We were looking for the needle in the haystack, and the haystack was the biggest ever. And here someone had an idea on how to reduce the size of said haystack.

"Gamma frequencys."

"Gamma frequencys?"

Starbuck explained to me the principal "Just before my accident, the Galactica picked up a number of transmissions. Those transmissions showed a space vehicle of some kind approaching a cratered looking surface of a planet."

Cratered looking surface of a planet……. My thoughts trailed of into the realms of history. Playing a hunch I went to my desk and turned on my laptop for a search through my personal files. When I didn't find it in there, I searched the ships own library through the laptop. Within a few minutes I found what I was looking for.

I selected the file, opened it and asked Starbuck to come over to my desk.

His mouth fell wide open when he saw what was happening. A few moments later, the file finished.

"So you are….." His mouth was still wide open, and the sentence left unfinished.

We just stood there, looking at each other and saying nothing. Not even the subject of the Gamma frequencies was brought up again. Whereas I needed that information. It wasn't even in the science database we had tried to translate.

Finally, Starbuck presented a pretty good looking US Navy salute and left without saying anything further.

I wondered what the rest had been about. I filed it away for later thought. I looked at the stack of paperwork again. "When will it ever end." Having muttered that to myself, I set out to reduce the size of said stack.

It was oh darkhundred Earth time somewhere when I must have called it a night.

I got a call to come to the bridge just after I took breakfast the following day.

The surprise was complete. Everybody wore Navy uniforms! No distinctiveness between either the Colonials or us. Interesting, to say the least.

For some reason, Starbuck remained the only exception.

He appeared to be a virtual copy of Cain, wearing the Colonial Warrior's uniform, with gold braid again on the flight jacket. "Why do you want to stand out, commander?"

"I don't want to stand out. I want everyone to remember why we're here." Then he had another bit of news for me "We're ready commence hyper jump."  
"Do you think we're set?" I asked him.

"No I don't think you're set. But if we dont act now, the Cylons may keep us bottled up in system. No, I'm afraid we're going to have to move."

He settled the argument. We couldn't train anymore then we already had. And before any kind of Cylon fleet got here we'd need to have the Galactica and her fleet safely in system, amongst other things.

With a heavy heart, I gave the order "Prepare for hyperjump."

Having been informed by Starbuck that he had temporarily replaced my own pilots by his, I watched the Colonial crew make preparations for the jump.

They looked up and signalled their readyness with a thumbs up.

Starbuck also indicated they were ready, so I gave the final order "Commence hyperjump."

With nothing less then a short show of light, the Atlantis disappeared out of Earth's solar system.


	8. Chapter 8

8

" Section fifteen Launch bay Beta, ready to launch training flight three, please acknowledge." The command from the launch control officer was a direct one, requesting of Karia a few more checks on her Viper's systems. She carried out those checks nearly instantly.

" Training flight three, launching now." Karia pushed the button marked turbo and felt how the launch acceleration thrust her back into her seat. Her Viper left the launch tube at nearly the same time as the one with her flight instructor in it.

" Good job so far Cadet, now put her on course and we'll begin."

The two vipers turned onto a new course and rapidly began to leave the fleet behind them.

A small solar system slightly off the track of the fleet was their target. There was something visible on one of the scanners turrets that had swept the systems for anything usefull. Since the system was well inside the range of a Viper flight, The mission was seen as something of a trial for the new cadets.

And therefore, cadet Karia, daughter of colonel Sheba and commander Apollo, was the first cadet to undergo the new trial.

The two vipers flew onward. The first planet of the system soon came into range. At her instructors command, Karia activated her scanner and pointed the dish towards the planet. Soon the data began to scroll on her screen. " Nothing remarkable on this planet. It seems to be a gas giant with a rather high methane percentage." Karia spoke as she analyzed the data herself.

" confirmed. It looks like the place is clear so far, cadet you're clear to move on to the next planet." With a short thrust of her turbos, Karia was off. Only to be reigned in by her instructor! He admonished her at first for leaving him behind then made her rejoin formation a couple of times. After that, the two vipers raced forward.

The second planet proved to be nothing but barren and dead rock, not containing any minerals or even life that could be considered interesting. After two more sweeps to be sure, the flight headed for the next planet.

Here the mission hit paydirt. The planet was full with tylium, the main mineral that fueled all the engines of the rat tag fleet. Again her cadet commander ordered Karia to do sweeps while he kept an eye on the surroundings. Again Karia studied the data that appeared on her screen as she orbited the planet.

" Interesting stuff, the scanners are picking up at least three veins of tylium and a host of other resources the fleet should be able to use. The atmosphere seems compatible with at least Caprica, making it an interesting object for the agro ships."

A brief wash of light reflected off her Viper, making her return her attention to outer space again. As she saw nothing, Karia began to contact her flight leader " Lead, come in please." After her fifth try she got her answer, only it wasn't what she expected.

Static.

The cadet began to worry now and reset her scanners to look for objects, of any kind.

She found what she was looking for, but it wasn't what she wanted to find. Playing a hunch, Karia ran the data stream through the warbook and was soon rewarded with a silhouette filled with technical data.

" Oh no." Instinctively she swung her ship around and switched on her turbos.

Silent explosions filled the sector of space she had just vacated. Checking her scanners again, Karia decided to make a run for the fleet. Perhaps one of the other outbound patrols would be able to help her as she came in. The very next moment, that decision was taken from her as the port engine was hit. The Viper started to pull to the left, its momentum bringing it into a circle.

That circle also made sure one of the three Cylon fighters that had been pursuing Karia would never fly again as the cadet had fired on and destroyed it. The other two however again found position behind her.

" Let's see how you fellas handle this." Noticing she had come up on the planet with the same atmosphere as Caprica, Karia dove straight in.

Almost immediatly, the Viper was buffetted by the turbulence. Still noticing her pursuit, she maintained her own course as well.

Coming into the quiet layers of the atmosphere, Karia found her high engine starting to malfunction, along with a few more instruments starting to shut down. " Looks like I'm going to have to set her down." She told herself, realising what that might mean.

Again the Cylons fired. And again she barely avoided getting hit. In the distance Karia saw a clearing. She immediatly aimed her nose in the direction of said clearing and began to slow down her Viper.

Now only one Cylon fighter stayed on her tail, holding fire, probably just observing what she was doing and maybe even reporting back to its base.

By then, the Viper was at the edge of the clearing, at low speed and altitude.

With a bonejarring crash of metal, wood and dirt, the Viper impacted. Here Karia also had her first stroke of real luck. Her Viper came to a stop on the opposite site of the woods, near the edge, but far enough in as to visually obscure her to the Cylon fighter that had stuck with her.

Unlike some other warriors she knew or had known, Karia was not knocked unconscious after her ' landing'.  
So almost immediatly she was able to jettison her canopy and start running. The Cylon fighter apparently never picked up on that and flew on.

" Alpha flight leader to base. The human pilot has landed in the woods. Dispatch a patrol to find him. Our fuel situation does not permit us to follow him." Three more Cylon fighters were launched immediatly.

Karia already knew she wanted to be as far away from the crash site as possible. Therefore she kept running, as hard as she could. In front of her, she heard branches breaking as someone, or rather something stepped on it. Karia changed her course so hard she tripped over a branch she didn't see and fell.

Her head hit a tree stump. Karia was spared the sensation of at least five centurions looking her over, before she was picked up by one of them and carried off.

The Centurions weren't alone however. From a distance deep in the shadows of the woods, two pairs of eyes tracked the robot warriors as they moved to their destination with their cargo.

" Sierra one to Charlie one, observing target. They seemed to have captured a colonial looking human."

Another voice soon chimed in " Sierra two confirms. Pappa ones target looks like a colonial warrior."

The base area had a bit of a boon for David Cain and his SEALS. There were three hills two of which were in the line of sight of the base, and one was behind the other. Besides the four men now watching the base and the six others eyeing the patrol, There were twelve more men looking around the area, seeing what else there was to dig up.

Atlantis had been drawn to the planet for the same reason as the Viper patrol had been. Tylium. We also needed to restock our fuel tanks after having scowered the Galaxy for the past two months in search of the ragtag fleet.

The mineral scanner aboard the battlestar had pointed the way, and carefull probing by Captain Dunlap's Vipers had done the rest. The only trouble in the entire plan was the Cylon base, sitting right on top of the vein. I had taken the chance of sending in David Cain with his team to figure out a way to get rid of the Cylons without having to resort to the heavy stuff aboard Atlantis herself.

And now this. I sighed and began to contemplate my options.

Right away I understood one thing. The base needed to stop transmitting. Wheter or not it was the second objective or not I didn't really see it yet, but nothing had to get off the planet either, with us being the obvious exception.

And then there was the colonial. Whoever he was, he might be able to help us find the Galactica. The opportunity seemed to good to pass up. There was one other important thing I needed to take care of first.

Still using their NVGs Sierra one and two found the crash site. Here, they removed the small navacomputer the Viper carried and too it with them. Having accomplished that part of the mission they boobytrapped the Viper and cleared out all evidence that they had ever been there.

Within spitting distance of their own teams hideout, the two seals were rewarded with a very loud CRUMP as the charge they had set on the Vipers fuel cells went up.

Sierra one keyed his mike " Sierra one, looks like we just introduced ourselves to the Cylons."

Cain responded himself " That's only our calling card, boys. Proper introductions will commence soon so get your butts back here."

The two seals found a brief reason to chuckle. Then they too disappeared back into the darkness.

The Cylons didn't have a true base on the planetoid, it was just a fueling operation, with an attached garrison. Once at a certain point in time, an automated freighter would arrive with essential supplies (few and far between) and carry off any fuel.

This time, the freighter didn't arrive on schedual.

Using the newly installed ESM gear we skirted the edge of their scanners and waited. As the freighter came out of its version of hyperspace, we had all our batteries locked and ready to fire.

It didn't take long to destroy the single freighter completely. By then, I was on the horn to Cain's Seals.

" I hope you guys are ready, because we're about to come barreling in with everything blazing." Cain cast a brief glance towards the stars. " Oh don't worry, just make sure to draw off their airsupport, me and the boys 'll do the rest."

Cain felt as if he was in his element as he directed his men in enveloping both the garrison and the fuel refinery. " The plan is simple. If it's a robot, wipe it out. If you don't know what to do with it, disable and report it in." With that the group moved out.

First signs of trouble, are usually explosions. Or patrols not responding. True as it was that there could be a multitude of other affairs that could also indicate trouble, but the Il unit in command of all the Cylons knew this was different from the start.

A colonial rescue party had arrived.

The very next moment a humongous (for Cylon standards) explosion tore the gate in half and shadows, of human stature, poured through. Centurian warriors began to fall, each having received a blast of fire straight through their chests. " Alert the spacedrome, we have a human attack on our hands."

" By your command." One of his junior officers replied. Right then, a new contact alert began flashing on the screens in the command center. As the IL studied the readouts, he said only one thing, and that was more to himself then for anyone else to hear " uh oh."

As we got to Cylon scanner range, I ordered the launch of two squadrons to attack everything Cylon within their reach.

This time, Steve let one of his subordinates lead the mission.

The Vipers got to the garrison as a few Cylon fighters had already taken off. These were dispatched with extreme prejudice by the first squadron. The second squadron kept a holding pattern, ready to assist should the situation warrant it.

On the ground, things were about to really heat up.

The first indication was heavily synthized voice saying " Hold it Humans!" The second was the fact all centurions had managed to form a line to oppose their attackers.

From the smokey haze that covered the command building the IL emerged again, this time he wasn't alone. With him, or rather in front of him, was the captured colonial pilot.

On instinct, the seals sought the best cover they could find.

" Oh crap." This was the first time I heard David Cain mutter anything since the operation began.

" Charlie surface, say status?" There was an eery silence to my request.

" We got us a hostage crisis here." The reply was something I didn't need to hear. " Roger that Charlie surface, be advised that you have full authority to deal with the situation in anyway that you see fit." I wasn't on the ground, I couldn't call the shots. The commander in charge on the surface would have to settle the situation the best way he could. And he sure as hell couldn't do that with any of his two hands tied behind his back.

" Status report on our surroundings?"

" All scopes are clear sir." Lieutenant Caldwell reported. " Allright lieutenant, let's see if you can get the ground battle on the scopes."

" Aye sir."

A few minutes later I got the scanner feed switched to my command center.

The first thing I noticed was the line of blue Xs. A quick answer from Caldwell showed them to be the Seals. Another blue X was located near the command building. With a red X that showed the Cylon positions practically on top of it, and another line of red Xs not to far away, I felt vindicated by giving Cain the authority I did.

From up here in space, we couldn't even begin to deal with the matter.

On the surface, David Cain studied his opponnent and thought of ways to end the standoff. Finally, he resorted to talking to the colonial pilot.

" Hi there, my name's Cain. What's yours?"

At the mention of his name her eyes widened, with such fear and glints of hope that Cain started to wonder what he had actually said.

He shouldn't have worried " Are you from the Pegasus?"

The colonial female, looking to be in her early twenties looked rather expectant, as if someone familiar to her had come to rescue her and would blow their mortal enemy to hades.

" No, I and my men aren't from the Pegasus." He decided to not reveal anything about the Atlantis just yet.

" Where are you from then?" the question had a certain ring to it. For a moment, it looked as if even the IL robot was looking forward to the answer.

" Let's just say that we're from a spacefaring nation powerfull enough to give the guy that's holding you an interesting challenge."

This caused the IL to give the equivalent of an electronic laugh.

" A human would never defeat me." The cylon commented. Now Cain found reason to laugh.

" In a way we already have. Those centurions are nothing more then target practice for my men. Your fighters are gone and the rest of your installations will soon follow. I can call down fire from a battlestar if I have to, who are you going to call?"

The IL remained passive.

Finally after what seemed to be an eternity, the robot lowered his arms, allowing the woman to walk free. She raced towards David Cain and hugged him.

" I knew grandfather wouldn't forget about the fleet."

Again Cain frowned. Then decided to ask the question " Who is your grandfather?"

" My grandfather is the greatest military mind the Colonies have ever known. He commands the battlestar Pegasus, and has won nearly every battle he fought against the Cylons."

For some reason the Seal commander suddenly felt very sick. Luckily for him, the woman never noticed it.

" Grandfather will be surprised when he sees me." Cain had an answer for her " I'm willing to bet he isn't the only one."

" I can't wait to tell him that Apollo was finally sealed to Sheba!" the response miffled David Cain. " I'm afraid I've never heard of any Sheba before, nor have I heard the name Apollo before."

" You should have, he now commands the Galactica in place of his father, commander Adama." The colonial stated with a certain finality. Then she noticed the other Seals and how different they looked in comparison to the ' regular' colonial military.

David noticed her facial expression change from uncertainty to outright fear to curiosity.

" Who are you then, really?"

Even the IL, although now some distance away, had perked its electronic ears.

" Perhaps it could be explained best aboard our battlestar." With that response he lead the woman in the direction of a freshly arrived shuttle.

On the way over to the Atlantis, Cain made the colonial submit to a blindfold.

Karia did as requested.

She felt and smelt everything though. How the shuttle landed easily, how everybody, including her went through a decon procedure and how they made the trek to one of the conference rooms. As they sat her down, the blind fold was also removed.

The room had been darkened to a degree and the blindfold didn't help things at first, but soon Karia managed to discern a rather familiar silhouette that sat across from her.

She blinked her eyes a couple of times just to get a feel for the light in her surroundings.

" At ease, cadet." Even the voice started to sound familiar. Even if she only had the recordings to go by, it was pretty sure to her she was looking at Starbuck, her fathers old wingmate, and a legend from the time of the Exodus.

Did he know……. Her thoughts trailed off.

" So what's the state of the fleet nowadays, cadet?" Karia realised she had only one chance to tell the man in front of her the truth. " The state is good, the Galactica, now under the commander of commander Apollo is still leading us for a shining planet known as Earth."

No response came back.

" Has commander Apollo sealed with Sheba?" Karia nearly fainted from laughing. " Afcourse they sealed, nine karens after they did, I was born."

" You're Apollo's daughter?" the opposition sounded surprised.

" Yep." There was a slight shuffle as the man came forward into the light. She recognised him almost immediatly.

There he stood, as if straight out of the recordings, Starbuck! Her fathers wingmate, one of the heroes of Carillon and so on. She rushed into his arms to get a warm embrace.

I watched it all from the monitor. We'd have a pretty solid lead to locating the Galactica now.


	9. Chapter 9

9

9

Having recovered the Vipers, troops and all necessary fuel, we left the star system as fast as we possibly could. We didn't want to stick around if the Cylons were to come looking to see what had happened to their refinery. And there was something far more important going on.

We had a lead!

Now I had the search pattern of space shifted to the sector we were in. I'm was pretty sure I wasn't the only one that felt the tension rising. Even the CAG and some of his pilots found time to come up and wait for the magic contact wording.

For a full day nothing happened, until one of the colonial crewmembers from the Pegasus had a brainstorm. It had to do with ion engines and their exhausts. The case in point was that we would look for their exhaust trails. Scanners were promptly reset and tuned to look for the exhaust trails that indicated any heading of the rag tag fleet.

Another day passed and still nothing.

Even the scouting patrols we launched came up empty.

I was beginning to think the fleet had vanished again.

The report that a viper patrol was returning at full speed brought me out of my dreamstate and sent the pilots that were on the bridge and me on a run towards the landing bay.

The two pilots had bolted out of their vipers and were already in decon procedures. So again we had to wait.

Here Steve, who had been in on the rush to the landing bay, commented that he'd be a millionare for every time he had to wait for something. It caused a number of laughs. By then the door hushed open.

The two pilots that came out looked rather grim. They found something alright, and I wasn't going to like what they found.

One of them the colonial pilot who had led the mission, made a request I was very willing to comply with " Sir, could we please use one of the conference rooms."

I nodded and the whole party began to move towards the bridge area.

Then the request came for a star chart of the surrounding area. Easily done. And as a bonus, the computer technician in the room entered the vector coordinates the patrol had flown. Everybody began eyeing the map, looking for any kind of strange phenomena.

We found a huge nebula, with a bunch of decaying ion trails nearby.

But there was something else as well.

A smaller bunch of tightly packed ion engine trails, spread through out the system, flying in a rather rigid pattern.

" Someone is looking for something." Steve remarked as he saw the map.

Mentally I agreed with the comment. I also figured who was looking for whom., and I didn't like the of the Cylons getting to the Galactica before we did.

" I think that someone is hiding in the nebula, waiting for those others to disappear." I responded.

" So what do we do now?"

" We wait."

" Why?" Starbuck, who had also joined the group, looked a little stressed about my comment.

" For all we know this could also be some kind of Cylon wargame. I'm not willing to announce this ship to the Cylons yet, and give them something that'll lead them to the Galactica anyway….."

I realised what I just said. That was it!

Starbuck kept looking at the Nebula on the map, very clearly thinking about the friends he had in there, somewhere.

I patted Starbuck on the shoulder and motioned him to follow me out of the room.

" Look, once the Cylons know we're out here, they'll come after us as well. That'll put us in bigger bind when we find the Galactica."

Starbuck continued to gaze at me.

" Look, when the Cylons find the Galactica we're just going to have to be around to save her, but, we can let the Cylons do the work for us, don't you see?" Again that sullen silence. What was this guy on?

Slowly he began to come to his senses. " once we beat back the Cylons we have some room to get the fleet to Earth." Starbuck had a thin smile forming on his lips. " sounds like an interesting plan, Bill."

So it began.

We didn't launch patrols for a while afraid as we were of revealing our position.

And we waited. Off duty crew would come to the bridge hoping to be in the right time to catch a glimpse of maybe the third battlestar coming out of the nebula we were watching. Scanner crews kept their eyes glued to their screens, looking for any evidence of activity that could spoil the best meant plans. Gunnery crews tested their weapons on dry runs and made sure everything stayed in working order. Nearly all the pilots kept themselves entertained in the simulators we had constructed prior to stumbling upon the Cylon Tylieum refinery.

Nearly two weeks after it all began, something poked its nose out of the nebula.

That something was soon identified as being a small probe. As we could see on our own scanners, the probe looked for anything related to the Cylons as it exited the nebula. Once it found nothing, the probe exited the nebula for a distance and waited.

We did the same.

Within a few hours, out they came.

First out the Galactica, and with her, was a squadron of Vipers, clearly acting as a CAP. Second was a ship that for lack of a better description was a passenger liner. Other ships soon followed as the battlestar kept her station while the fleet reassembled.

I was amazed. Starbuck looked as if he was about to cry.

" Don't worry, we'll get you reunited with your friends."

" I know, it's been a long time though, I'm just wondering who'll be left."

My attention returned to the screens where with practiced efficiency the rag tag fleet was beginning to get into formation. It wouldn't be long before they were off on their trek across the stars.

Starbuck looked almost itching to go.

" Hold your horses, commander. We'll join them soon. For now let's see who else comes to the meeting." I remembered a tale from an old friend of mine by the name of Rick Brody. Brody had spent his entire career in the Silent Service. During one of our rather infrequent tours together at a ROTC unit he had told me about how his crew had once tracked a Chinese submarine that was tracking a Russian one only to be surprised when a North Korean sub showed up as they traversed the Yellow Sea!

So we waited some more.

" Bingo." I watched the scanner and main screens together with everybody else on the bridge as the first Cylon basestar appeared. Pretty soon it was followed by two others. To my right I heard someone exhale.

" You were right." I wondered if Starbuck was apologizing or just telling me that he'd made a mistake. There was first another matter to take care of. " Helm follow them, just keep them to the edge of our scanner range."

Slowly we moved off as well.

Now the cat and mouse game would really begin. And this time, there was a dog involved.

9B

Aboard the lead Cylon basestar things were going according to order.

Cylon centurions performed their usual rounds, did their usual maintenance where necessary and flew the occasional patrols also. Only one Cylon was on the move near the area of the command centre. The flickering of his lights indicating his higher functions working at full speed.

He came to a stop near the command pedestal.

" By your command."

Slowly, the pedestal turned. On top of it, was the only human to ever command a basestar, or for that matter even a fleet of them. Count Baltar, formerly of the council of the twelve, the ruling body of the twelve worlds of man.

" the Galactica commander thinks he has eluded our pursuit." He's wrong. As ordered the other ships are waiting on the edge of this system." Baltar took in all of this as his trusted IL robot Lucifer displayed a holographic projection.

" Good, once those forward units establish contact with the Galactica, we'll come in from behind and destroy them all. Have preparations begun immediatly."

" By your command." Lucifer rolled out of the command chamber, leaving Baltar to his own devices.

Aboard the three baseships, preparations for the fighter launch began immediatly.

The same applied for the weapon systems. The scanners aboard Atlantis easily picked up the increased power signatures. We didn't dare power up ourselves., not yet, we would wait and strike, hard.

The forces near the edge of the system were under the command of Spectre, the other IL that Starbuck had defeated on Atilla. His taskforce consisted of another three more modern baseships. Like Baltar, he knew the Galactica would now never the chance of escaping. He realised one other thing though. Far from leaving the glory of the destruction of the last remnant of humanity to Baltar and Lucifer, Spectre wanted some of that glory for himself.

Only in this way could he be an equal to Lucifer.

Unfortunately, this revelry was interupted " By your command."

One Gold centurion, his personal baseship commander, had entered the chamber.

" Report centurion."

" We have received a report from Lord Baltar. We are to commence final preparations for the attac k on the human fleet."

Spectre didn't answer. Instead thoughts of a plan entered his cybernetic comparison to a brain. " Begin the preparations at once, then close to launch distance with the humans." He waited until the Centurion had left again, and then spoke to noone but his own " Then we will see who will have the glory of finishing off the humans."

The three baseships that had formed the blocking force began maneuvering into formation before working their way deeper into the system.

9c

Aboard the Galactica, Apollo was in shock. Karia was missing, his wife was in a coma, and so far fuel searches had come up empty. A few Vipers had again been launched to scout the area ahead of the fleet, and these weren't due yet to come on in.

A rescue team for Karia was in the works, but the fleet needed to be kept moving to make sure the Cylons wouldn't catch up.

Apollo understood perfectly well that after all these years, the Cylons were still on their tail, following their every move, and that they had to be prepared. Even to the point that the council was not. Hell, Apollo had suffered more from the council of the twelve then from the Cylons altogether after taking command from the Galactica.

Still, the only leeway he still had was that he now being the commander, had noticed that council orders often carried a great deal of leeway in which to carry them out. But in more recent times, the council had started to clamp down.

" Sir,m we're showing cpatain Kree's patrol inbound on turbos."

The report shook him out of his contemplations. " Any luck on contacting them?"

" No sir, it appears as if they're being jammed."

Apollo already had his suspicions. " Battlestations!" the red combat lights soon came on and the monitors began to show pilots leaving for their respective ships.

" Longrange scan to full power, let's see what's behind them."

Tension began to mount, as most of the people on the bridge within earshot awaited the report.

" Commander, longrange scan shows a wall of unidentified craft closing with the fleet. We're switching to high resolution scan."

" Power to all weapon systems, standby for a major attack." Apollo heard the organized chaos with which his orders were carried out.

" Positive form scan, multiple person attack craft which are...now confirmed to be Cylon raiders."

Apollo glanced around his bridge. Now he would really see what the and the others had prepared the latest generation of warriors for.

" Launch fighters at twenty microns range. Prepare for full artillery barrage. Helm, defensive pattern three and order the fleet to go to defensive formation three."

Spectre already had the refugee fleet on his screens as he noticed how they rearanged themselves " Interesting, they think they can challenge us with a change in formation."

Somebody else also noticed what was going on. Soon Spectre received word that Baltar was hailing him.

" What are you doing, Spectre?" Baltar seemed slightly agitated.

" Preventing the Galactica and her fleet from escaping, just as your plan called for." Baltar seemed to redden. " You idiot! They'll only have to defeat our forces one after the other. You fool, delay your engagement until I get there. And incase you don't understand, that's an order."

Spectre now found the time to comply with Baltar. His fighters changed course at twenty one microns range from the Galactica.

On the Galactica bridge, a few sighs of relief were released. Not this time, yet.

" Full scan, all aspects." A worried Apollo ordered. Something wasn't right here.

He got his answer a few moments later "Sir, another wall of Cylon attack craft approaching from the rear."

Instead of shock, Apollo got a suprise a few moments later. " Commander, The second Cylon assault is turning away!"

Apollo looked at one of the tactical screens. The ensign that had manned the tactical scanners had been right. The Cylons were indeed withdrawing, as fast as they could. That only left the three Cylon baseships to the front of them.

A major effort, if there ever was one.


	10. Chapter 10

10

10

It would be much later when commander Apollo learned about why the Cylon forces to his rear had pulled back. Starbuck told me beforehand if it was a certain Count Baltar who commanded those forces he'd pull them back to save his own skin.

I'd end up giving him a box of Cuban sigars if at all possible.

In the meantime, we had three baseships to cripple and not quite a lot of time to work with.

Again I preplanned a little something with colonel Merryweather and the missile crews.

During our training we had discovered the volatility of a substance the colonials knew as solenite. Tests on the wreck of the basestar we destroyed proved it to be a pretty potent explosive material. However, it also showed a weakness. Despite its power, solenite couldn't really destroy anything unless you hit stuff like fuel tanks or armorys and the like, with pretty much something that looked like an alpha strike to me.

One of the ordinance people in Dunlaps airwings then had an idea. He simply proposed attaching a nuclear warhead behind the solenite warhead and reshaping said solenite warhead to create a shaped charge then he would test it to see what the explosion of the solenite would do to the nuclear stuff. In essence we would be creating a shipkiller with a tandem charge of enough power to kill a city.

When reading about it, I pretty much figured we didn't want to be anywhere around if that stuff went up. Starbuck agreed with me on the matter. In the end however, Chief O'Neill got the go ahead. Shortly after that we got a delivery of W-80 nuclear warheads.

Somewhat after the hyperjump I visited the ordinance locker again. O Neil had three weapons prepared. " So what are you going to call them, Chief?"

O'Neill grinned " The only thing that comes to mind, Basestar Busters."

I nodded " I'm pretty sure the Cylons will allow you to field test them." The Chief answered that he'd sure hope so. We never suspected how close we came to the truth about the matter.

" What's in the tubes?" was the first thing out of my mouth as Starbuck reported the Cylon fighters would be to late to interfere. " Two Basestar busters and two conventionals, sir."

" Right. Gunnery crews, target all their landing bays, potshots on anything that looks important. Missile crews standby."

I breathed out briefly " Set basestar busters for the guys on the flanks, conventionals on the middle." Again I waited until those orders had been carried out.

" All set, sir."

" Helm, prepare lightspeed coordinates to the colonial fleet. Execute once we're past the Cylons." As the helm signalled their readyness, I gave the final order.

" Full power to all systems! Execute firing run!"

Baltar's first inclination that something was wrong was the fact that his basestar shook like an earthquake as the first shots from Atlantis impacted and wrecked the landing bays on his base star. As he picked himself of the floor, Lucifer, his trusted IL series aide ambulated in.  
" What was that?"

" It would seem that we are under attack from a battlestar." Lucifer reported in between shocks. Much like at Gamoray, Baltar panicked again and ordered his fighters recalled. By then however we played our next trump.

" Fire basestar busters."

In my log I would later credit the missile crew leading officers with the idea. The two missiles we launched didn't impact on the hull areas of the base stars we targeted. Instead, they flew through some of the holes that had been created in the landing bay areas and detonated there.

The results were spectacular indeed. By then we were on rear scan, as we had passed the baseships and were rapidly accelerating towards the colonial fleet. Two very large explosions were reported. " Scratch two." Caldwell remarked as he noticed the screen read outs.

We began making out explosions as we rapidly closed on the forward parts of the refugee fleet. Sometimes one of them would briefly reveal the shadow of a Cylon basestar or even the Galactica herself.

" Closing to optimum launch range." One of the other officers on flight operations duty reported. I was studying the tactical read outs. Apparently the Cylons were concentrating their attacks on the Galactica, saving the fleet as target practice for later. For some reason they didn't even bother to spread out her defenses by attacking the fleet.

" Launch fighters when in range. All gunnery crews, standby for air to air combat."

I watched on the monitor as the starfield passed by at an angle.

As soon as we levelled out, things began in earnest.

10B

Lieutenant Boxy of Blue squadron always found targets, no matter how he turned his fighter and at what angles he flew. So many Cylons were pouring towards him and his compatriots that in the back of his mind he wondered if this was the final Cylon assault against them. The thought was reinforced as he watched another Viper shatter after being hit by Cylon fire.

That brief moment was also enough for him to be trapped in the beginnings of a pinwheel attack.

Boxey flew as if posessed. It seemed as if the Cylon fire never touched him, but the young lieutenant knew better. Their shots were getting closer.

The firing suddenly stopped. Boxey was quick enough to catch a four ship formation of Vipers flash by on turbos not soon after.

Strike captain Cree, commanding officer of Blue squadron, found himself in nearly the same position. Outnumbered about ten to one, and with his wingman destroyed, Cree was also giving as good as he got. Then he too saw it. This time it was a formation about a third the size of a squadron. The formation appeared above his opponnents and vaporised all of them in a short battle.  
One of the other officers also surprised, was Major Boomer. After Starbuck's disappearance, and Apollo's promotion following the death of Adama, Boomer found himself being named head of all flight operations. And as usual he was out with the rest of the squadrons, providing support and tactical advice where he could.

He saw the largest formation of Cylon ships being overwhelmed by a massive number of freshly arriving Viper fighters.

Then he saw something else as well.

On the Galactica bridge, things were a little hectic. Every screen showed Cylon fighters giving the Galactica their full attention. Vipers shot down scores of Cylons, only to be overwhelmed by more Cylons not much later. And yet, the Cylons weren't even concentrating any kind of effort on the refugee fleet. Apollo knew this would soon change. It all depended on how his fathers ship would hold together. Considering the amount of smoke, fire and assorted sparks which meant instruments short circuiting, he had little hope.

Only then he began noticing the diminishing amounts of impacts on the hull.

" Status report."

In space, captain Steven Dunlap, commander air group USS Atlantis had a blast. Everywhere he looked the Viper fighters under his command shot Cylons out of the stars. The two wings from the Eisenhower flew together and attacked the Cylon main force. A whole lot of explosions later, there was nothing resembling a Cylon main force left.

The squadrons from his own wing were at it too. A flight from the reserve group saved a colonial from a pinwheel attack as Steve personally led another squadron down to help a Viper that was fighting against an entire squadron of Cylons on his own.

The Cylon squadron was annihilated without Steve's unit taking casualties.

It surprised me how effective our attack was. The Cylons, apparently intent on destroying what they thought was the last vestige of human power, now found themselves under attack. And the results were devastating.

But we weren't out of the woods yet. I got another report over my headset from Colonel Merryweather " Missile tubes reloaded with base star Busters."

" Good job, colonel. We may need those missiles soon then you think."

Aboard the main Cylon basestar, Spectre watched as his attackforce was cut to pieces. He seemed a little ' agitated' that Baltar had been right again. " Order all baseships to close the range with the Galactica. Finish her off and we will carry the field."

" Sir if I may." One of the command centurions interupted Spectre.

" Computer read out indicates there are enough Viper currently flying to have come from two battlestars." As if to emphasize the point Spectre's own Basestar got a jolt from a hit. The nearly made the IL fall over.

" What was that?"

" The other battlestar. It has just hit us with a laser volley."  
" What other battlestar?"

The Cylon variation of the colonial warbook appeared on a computer screen. It ran through the different variations of every colonial ship known to the Cylons, and since the war between the humans and the Cylon empire had lasted for a thousand years, it was an extensive database.

Finally it settled on the silhouette of a battlestar. Spectre and his command staff studied the screens for a brief moment before he gave the next order " Retrieve all our remaining fighters and prepare to retreat." During that period the Basestar was hit twice, with one hit literaly putting Spectre on the floor.

Out in space things began to change nearly instantly. The Cylons to the rear of the attack started to disengage and turn onto a course that would take them back to their base stars. Those at the halfway point began to imitate their compatriots. Those in the front were the unlucky ones. Nearly two thirds of them fell victim to a massive Viper charge.

By then one of the three Cylon ships that had charged upon the Galactica had been reduced to its component atoms. The remaining others two ships had several parts shot away each. Traces of other kinds of damage were also visible. As soon as those two recovered their remaining fighters, they started to accelerate away from the battle.

From both battlestars cheers erupted over the comwaves as each brought their respective fighters home.

Aboard the Galactica the mood was esspecially jubilant. They had survived the Cylon onslaught once again, with the help of Cain, or so the crew thought. Apollo had noticed something different, esspecially when Boomer reported in in person about what he had seen during the battle.

Aboard the Atlantis, the cheers erupted for a different reason. We had found the Galactica!

But now what? It was a thought that sprung on me like a trap door. We found the Galactica but where her crew and the fleet she was escorting even willing to come to Earth? And more importantly, what would the consequences be of taking them to Earth?

It all started to run through my brain, at rather high speed as well. Lieutenant Caldwell broke my thoughts. " Sir, a message from the Galactica incoming."

" Business or pleasure?" Caldwell gave me a look of disbelief.

" Business."

" What's the status on fighter recovery?" Caldwell checked the operations monitor from his station. " 99 percent complete, sir." It figured. No time like the present. " Alright, prepare my shuttle and have David Cain meet me with an escort, four guys ought to be enough. In the meantime, no landings from anything from the refugee fleet. Even if it is an emergency. " I didn't want to upstart anyone, not yet.

Hell, Earth on its own would be a culture shock to the Colonials on a never seen or heard of before level.

I left the bridge and headed for my quarters. Since I was basically going to write the book on the so called First Contact protocols I would need time to prepare. Starbuck met me at the door.

" Anything I should know?"  
" Yeah, beware of the council of the twelve." Oh great, here my acting XO tells me to be aware of their politicians. I was starting to wonder if we had any crew by the name of Murphy aboard, and for that matter, how many of them as well.

" Aren't you coming?" I asked

" No, not yet. Though it might be wise to take Karia with you as a sign of trust." I nodded. Karia was already on her way to the shuttle bay, under the watchfull eye of David Cain.

" One other thing. Since they don't know who they're going to meet, use that to your advantage. Surprise them." Starbuck's words struck a cord with me. Even more so as I changed my wardrobe.

Surprise had had won us this battle. Would surprise win us the next one?

A plan began forming in my mind as I went on my way to the shuttle.


	11. Chapter 11

11

11

the flight over was uneventful.

At my own request, the shuttle pilot along with the escorting squadron of vipers from the Atlantis, did a scenic flight of the Galactica. The traces were visible to the naked eye. Despite some very rugged maintenance efforts, it seemed as if the battlestar looked like a sieve, with hull plating even piled on top of other previous repairs.

They had been through a lot, and now their journey was nearly complete.

The shuttle pilot reported that we had clearance to land. I instructed him to do so.

It wasn't unlike the landings on Atlantis. We passed through some sort of magnetic field and touched down. Then a member of the groundcrew signalled us with lights wants and marshalled the shuttle to the far end of the landingbay.

David Cain came over to my seat " Alright captain, let us go out first and asses the situation." I nodded. " Proceed, no flashbangs or other stuff though. And you don't have to present arms when I leave the shuttle." Cain turned around and went aft towards his men.

I looked at Karia who had been sitting beside me during the flight and had chattered about how glad she was to be back. And she was also glad she was rescued from the Cylons. Although the we hadn't really told her where we were from yet, I just smiled " All in a days work." Then I also went aft, to the exit.

David Cain was amongst the first of his men out of the shuttle. And he couldn't help but notice the smell of smoke still permeating the air. Cain and one of his men securely scanned their surroundings, weapons at the ready. The other two men scanned the people obviously in honor formation. When they found no threats they called clear.

" All clear, captain. A guy in blue up front looks like he's the top dog in here."

I nodded and put on my service cap. It was time.

There were a few hushed voices in the background, and a few looks from the Colonial personnel still working on repairing the damage. For a moment I thought I heard a gasp, or maybe even two.

I descended via the small boarding ramp that had been attached to the shuttle and came to a stop in front of the man Cain had described to me. I presented him a standard military salute. " Sir, Captain William Adams, commanding officer USS Atlantis."

My mentioning of the Atlantis caused even more frowns then my standard US Navy service uniform. Or for that matter, the SEALS and their equipment.

The blue clad figure remained at his form of attention and answered " Commander Apollo, commander of the Colonial battlestar Galactica and president of the council of the twelve of the colonies of man." He paused shortly " Or what's left of them."

I exhaled. So far so good.

" To bring you proof of our intentions, here's someone we rescued from the Cylon tylieum mine on that planet back there." At that, one of Cain's men disappeared back into the shuttle and came out with Karia.

Apollo's face told a thousand tales all at once. A father happy to see his daughter return safe and sound, a commander whose troubles had eased, somewhat. And loads more. There would be plenty time for that later though.

" Words can't describe my feeling at this moment." Apollo remarked as Karia finished telling her the story of her rescue.

" I know. Our scanners showed us more then we expected. Technology can be discussed at a later stage though. Right now I'm more interested in the fleet status, because the Cylons will be back to finish what they started."

It caused a few concerned looks amongst what I guessed to be staff officers.

" Perhaps we should adjourn to a conference room." At my agreement we trekked deeper into the ship.

I was amazed at the similarities in construction between the Galactica and the Atlantis. Atlantis looked older yet better maintained where as Galactica clearly showed signs of heavy use. I refocused on the matter at hand as we entered the conference room.

The disk with the combat data that had been collected aboard the Atantis was soon inside the data recorder of the conference room. On the screen it showed the Cylon positions as they withdrew from the area. I briefed the assembled officers personally, as Cain and a couple of men stood guard outside.

" This is the situation we currently face. The Cylons have at least four baseships still in the general area. Those ships should have more then enough fighters still remaining to wipe us out, twice over."

I let that sink in and then went on to propose my plan.

Apollo was the first to respond, commenting that he thought it quite sceptical that the Cylons would attack so soon after getting mauled like this. I answered that under the circumstances I would agree with him, but I felt the Cylons would soon have reinforcements on their way, and that we didn't want to be around when they got there.

Now the colonial commander was forced to agree with me. His next question was rather more pointed " Commander Adams, where is the rest of your fleet?"

" What fleet?"

" Your single battlestar, is that all there is of Earth's fleet?!" Apollo's look of disbelief is rather annoying but I figure I don't want to burst his bubble, yet.

" Currently there is one other ship in the Earth fleet. I can't divulge its name, but I can tell you that her commander has temporarily replaced my executive officer. He couldn't make this meeting."

One of the other officers in the room, a major, made some comments in a colonial tongue that I couldn't quite understand. The question that followed however was far to clear not to understand. "From where did the Atlantis depart?"

No time like the present " Earth."

" So Earth is real then?" Apollo asked.

" As real as you and me." I answered. What Apollo said next however, surprised me " Since with your presence Earth is determined to be real, as president of the council of the twelve, the governing body of the twelve worlds of man I hereby request asylum on behalf of our people."

" I'm sorry sir, but that decision is not up to me. Such requests are usually handled by people higher up my chain of command."

Apollo's look of disbelief was worhty of a photograph to say the least. " You mean to tell me you're not even a sector commander?"

" No sir, my only responsebility was finding you. And once I did I was to get you to Earth in any which way possible, and that goes for the fleet of ships you're escorting as well. We're prepared to offer you sanctuary for the time being."

" You know about the Cylons?"

I nodded " We do."

" The Cylons aren't a concern unless we move quickly. " I felt we had more then one option to encourage the Cylons from not pursueing us any further, and " I also feel that we're wasting time here with talking to each other while we could be preparing a very hot reception for those Cylons that will come after us."

Apollo nodded. " Very well, how do you wish to proceed?"

I switched over to another part of the data that I brought with me and brought it up on the screen. " Like this." As Apollo and his command staff studied the data, they now found they had ample reason to smile again.

The tap on my shoulder came from David a few moments later. At nearly the same time, I heard a squawk from the Galactica pa system.

"What is it?"

" We just got a relay through the shuttle. A shuttle from the refugee fleet requested permission to land aboard Atlantis."

" You know the orders I gave, right?" Cain nodded " Yes sir. So does the XO. They told me what he did."

Cain whispered to me what had happened. The shock of it all apparently showed on my face, for Commander Apollo came over and asked what was wrong. I told him what Cain had told me.

The commander of the Galactica stepped over to the nearby com panel and spoke a few words which I didn't understand.

Not much later he told me that the problem had been temporarily solved although he also added that " The council will want to talk to you."

We returned our attention to the Cylon taskforce.

11b

In something that could rather described as a stroke of bad luck, Spectre and Baltar had managed to stay in communications range. There was one difference though, Baltar did the talking, and Spectre, was the one who listened. After he was through with him, the only thing Spectre responded with was the obligatory " By your command."

Then he closed the channel and the baseships were off again, in search of their prey. This time however, they operated together. Baltar making sure that he had full control of the operation. This time, nothing would stop him from destroying the Battlestar Galactica and her fleet.

With their fighters in the lead, the Cylon baseships moved in.

Only to find empty space!

Where only centons ago had been a fleet of ships, there was now only debris of the previous battle.

The Cylon fighters were promptly send to scout the debris field.

" Mistake number one." I silently muttered as we watched our screens in the far distance.

" Sequence one is a go."

The scanner screen lit up with the telltale sign of a detonation.

Hidden in the debris field, was a motley collection of nuclear warheads and a couple of basestar busters. The Cylon flight group had been close enough for me to order the remote detonation of one of the nukes.

I had to keep from laughing out loud as one of the basestar busters was poulled into a basestar with a tractor beam.

" Detonate number five please." Again that sign. " Alright, activate timers on all charges then get us back to rendezvous with the refugee fleet."

Within a five centon period, the basestars were unable to move, afraid that they would run into something that could well be fatal. From what we calculated, there would be no way the Cylons would be able to follow any kind of trail. And they'd be wary anyway, Atlantis already had three baseships on her killboard.

We got back to the fleet without any trouble.

The first message from the Galactica however spelled trouble. I read it with the command staff present " the presence of the Atlantis commanding officer and XO are requested before the next session of the council of the Twelve." The message went on to give a time and the location of the council chambers aboard the Galactica.

" Oh boy, now it really begins."


	12. Chapter 12

12

With the message in my hand I requested Starbuck to come to my quarters so we could discuss an opening strategy. I figured this was going to be the mother of all collisions, and I would need to make sure I kept the situation under control. The colonial politicians would need to be prevented from causing too much damage. This much I already knew from colonial history Starbuck had shown and told me and the rest of the command crew.

" I take it the quorum requested an audience?" Starbuck's words echoed through my chambers as he came in. My only response was to show him the message. " I see," was his only response.

" You know about our political system, right?"

Starbuck, who had poured himself a drink, sat down. " Sure I do. And I'll tell you this right now. With the exception of Cain and Adama, everybody was trying to stay in the chain of command. It got us Cimtar; it made us refugees. You guys have a measure of control over your government we couldn't even begin to phantom."

I nodded. The words were making me think.

Then it hit me. " Starbuck, that council isn't going to be a problem for me, I'm going to be a problem for the council." And I gave him my predatory smile. And boy, was I ever going to cause problems for the quorum.

After yet another uneventful overflight to the Galactica, Commander Apollo met me in the landing bay to escort me to the council chambers.

" How are you feeling?"

" Quite well, thank you."

" Nervous?"

" No, not really." Apollo studied me for a brief moment " I want to thank you again for rescuing Karia. As of right now she's about all I have left." I frowned " Did something happen with your wife during the battle?"

" No. A bit prior to that she was on a patrol with my son. Something happened out there so they made an emergency landing aboard where she was diagnosed to be comatose."

For some reason it didn't quite add up, but I wasn't yet sure about the hows and the whys. It felt as if something was tugging at me from somewhere.

" We'll talk about that later. Right now I just want to get this council meeting out of the way."

" That's the quorum, but you'll soon get the hang of it." Two cultural thinking while in the 3d dimensions of space. Another thing learned.

We got to the council chambers in time for Apollo to brief me about what was to take place.

" The standard procedure is for the quorum president to open the meeting and bring it to order. Since you joining up with us is first on the agenda, we'll instruct a council guard to let you in."

" Sounds simple."  
" It is." Apollo answered. " The hardest part is basically their questions." I didn't gulp. The hardest part I knew wouldn't be their questions, but my answers.

I checked out the area Apollo left me in.

A few chairs and a table were all the comforts afforded to a visitor who would have an audience with the quorum. I sat down in one of the chairs to do a little contemplating.

Fifteen minutes later the door through which Apollo had entered opened and a burly looking man that could be nothing less then a council security guard spoke to me in colonial standard " Commander Adams, will you please come with me."

Quietly I followed the guard.

The room he lead me to was a spacious one. Raised to a somewhat higher level was a large table where several men and a couple of women were seated along with Apollo. A slight distance from the quorum a table and chair had been placed along with a microphone.

" Welcome to this session of the quorum of the twelve, commander Adams." With the welcome out of the way, I sat down and answered " Thank you for seeing me on such short notice. However, I feel I must correct your opening statement, councillor…."

" Sire Madron, and it's not councillor, I don't even understand what that word means."

" It's just for my own comparison. I do not wish to entice you."

" I see. Well then perhaps you can illuminate us as to why you gave the order that no one was allowed to land on your ship?"

" I simply didn't wish to endanger my command from anything hazardous." My suspicions about Madron began to increase. " And to that effect I gave orders that no one was to land on my ship. My XO had orders to prevent that from happening. It would seem he followed them to the letter."

Madron looked a little agitated. " Perhaps, but is establishing a full target lock and having my shuttle intercepted by a flight of Vipers not a bit overbearing?"

" On the contrary.. " I answered " You violated the area space of my ship without proper credentials. Since your pilot decided to be escorted back to the fleet by my Vipers, that prevented my fighter turrets from blasting you out of the stars."

The remark caused an uproar lasting a number of minutes. Whilst trying to calm down the quorum members, Apollo managed to send a rather scornful look my way. I returned my version with equal pleasure.

As things calmed down, Madron was again given permission by the chair to resume with his questions.

" By what right did you get command of that battlestar?"  
" I was tasked to take command of her by my superior officer."

" And who might that be?"

" Rear-Admiral Jerry Schultz."

" And where can we find him?"

" On Earth, when we get there." I had been terribly tempted to say if. Because I felt that if the quorum got in my way, much like they had with commander Apollo apparently, the chances of us getting to Earth would get slimmer every time they interfered.

Another uproar ensued.. Again Apollo had to calm them down. " Look, gentlemen. On the request of commander Apollo, I came here to talk to the colonial government, to tell them that they should not ask Earth to help them against the Cylons. That is something that Earth will do, now that we know who they are." I paused to do some recollecting.

" I came here to tell you that I only represent Earth. There will be people from Earth to discuss how we can best integrate our societies." I'd be too busy worrying about the Cylons to make a real contribution to such a debate anyway.

" But quite frankly, the way I see you politicians behaving I'm very tempted to throw you in my brig if you ever set foot aboard Atlantis without my express consent." The remark left them all stunned.

" Oh and in case you don't realize it, I'm not part of your chain of command. I do not have to report to you under any kind of circumstances. "

The room went quiet, deadly quiet.

" What are you saying, captain Adams?" This time it was Apollo who had the question.

" I'm saying basically, you're welcome at Earth. But that means you must accept Earth as it is and Earth will have to deal with you as you basically are."

I had an effect in mind " Can you accept that?"

Mardon again reacted " You're not fit to command. We should relieve him."

" You and what army, councillor?" I had enough of the fool. If he still didn't understand the rules had been changed by the arrival of Atlantis, he would never get it.

" Commander Apollo, can't you relieve this, this…. gentleman of his command." Madron hadn't listened, at all.

" Unfortunately Sire Madron, I can't."

" You can't or you won't." Madron asked for clarification.

" I can't. Captain Adams has made it clear to me that he is not a member of the colonial fleet. He has also tried to make it clear to this august body that he isn't part of the colonial chain of command. My hands in this matter are tied. And so are yours."

Apollo had understood from the day we met. Why didn't the quorum?

I never bothered to think like a politician. This was one of the times it came back to haunt me.

" Will there be any further questions?" I was glad to hear Apollo ask.

As this was not the case, the gathering was adjourned. Apollo waited for me as I started to make my way out of the chamber.

" Wasn't that a little overdone?"

" Look, these guys 'd better understand that when they get to Earth things are going to change radically. I want them to have that impression or else you and your people are going to be in a boatload of trouble."

Apollo seemed to be in tense concentration, probably thinking through some of the things I had said both in the chambers and to him personally.

" Perhaps I'd do better to show you what to expect."

" Perhaps it might be."

Apollo accompanied me to the Galactica's Alpha landing bay and boarded my shuttle with me.

At his behest, the shuttle flew the scenic route of the Atlantis and landed without effort in our version of the hangar bay not much later.

The Marine guard presented arms as we disembarked.

" Impressive." Apollo muttered as he looked around the bay.

" When we found her we pretty much figured it was a carrier. And back on Earth, the Navy handles the carriers. So we basically transported the system over. It seems to be working very well." We walked further into the bay to a Viper that was being serviced.

" I think you'll like this. We made some basic improvements to the design. Exterior she still looks the same, but on the interior is where the difference is at."

" May I?" Apollo asked. I gave him permission to take a seat in the cockpit.

" As you can see we made a lot of changes to the instrument board. Now my pilots no longer have to look around to find a switch. It's all been placed in front of them."

The commander of the Galactica accidentally activated the attack computer and watched the small screen to his front.

" Interesting. You seem to have found a way to project an image on that glass plate." I smiled at the response.

" My pilots call it a HUD. Basically the optical device keeps your head off the instruments and focused on the outside where your opponent is doing his business."

" Sounds like a handy device."

" It is. As you can see we've created a cockpit where you're not toggling switches anymore, and are more focused towards survival." I explained the rest of the design philosophy as we made our way to the elevator that would take us to the main hull.

" I'm amazed at the similarities between this ship and the Galactica," Apollo commented as we neared the bridge.

" How do you think I feel when I was aboard you ship," I answered.

We entered the spacious bridge. One of the ensigns on duty called " Captain on the bridge."

" As you can see we changed some things here as well." Apollo studied everything as I gave a running commentary on how we operated.

" You do indeed do things differently."

" With just these basics we got this vessel up and running. We had some troubles but these were soon sorted out, with some help."

" What kind of help?"

" Shall we proceed to my quarters? The answer to that question can be found there." As we left that same ensign said, " Captain off the bridge."

We trotted off to my personal quarters.

The door hushed open and I motioned for Apollo to enter. I smelled the fumes of a cigar as I followed the colonial commander. I knew he was there as well.

" Sorry, but I let myself in."

" No problem."

Apollo's mouth was already hanging ajar as I decided to do the formal introductions.

" Commander Apollo, it is my honor to introduce to you, commander Starbuck, of the colonial Battlestar Pegasus."

The new questions followed in rapid order along with the answers. In the end Apollo again turned to me " Is he…"

" Despite the fact that I named him as commander of the Pegasus, since he was the ranking officer to survive, Starbuck falls within your chain of command. I must admit though that I'm sorry to lose such a good XO."  
Starbuck looked a little gloomy himself " I'd be sad to let go of such a position here."

" What happened to the Pegasus, and for that matter, Cain?"

" Easy answer. Cain is on Earth in one of the Navy hospitals." Starbuck then went on to explain how Cain ended up in said hospital. When he finished the story, Apollo again found a reason to look at me.

" I suspected a number of things, commander Apollo. A number of them added up ever since Starbuck has been on this ship, a few others I learned after our meeting. But now gentlemen, let's look at the matter at hand. How do we prepare your people for Earth?"


	13. Chapter 13

Brothers from space 13

Brothers from space 13

It was more usual to see a car skidding to a stop near the emergency ward instead of a main entrance of any hospital, even if it was the famous Naval hospital. This time however it was a truly remarkable coincidence that this car was a rather official looking staff car.

Out of said staff car, came admiral Jerry Schulz. The admiral was out of his car before it had come to a nearly complete stop and running towards the doors with a full head of steam.

He reached one of the special wards in record time, where he was met by one of the doctors that had a rather special patient under her care.

" Okay Doc, what's the emergency?"

" Follow me, sir. And I'll show you."

The doctor led the admiral deeper into the ward with only one room.

The two Navy officers were in time to see how the room its only occupant was in the proces of putting on his jacket.

" Ah Admiral Schulz, would you please convince this medical officer here to release me from this hellhole that you call a lifestation?"

Schulz'mouth was ajar. Before him, looking as if he had a clean bill of health again, stood none other then Cain, commanding officer of the battlestar Pegasus.

" Cain, what the hell are you doing up?"

" They're coming, Admiral, and you're going to need me and the Pegasus when they arrive."

Schulz gave Cain a very hard look, one he usually reserved for junior officers that failed him.

" Who are they?"

" They are the ones who got me here, doctor Morales."

At that, doctor Morales who had heard some of Cain's muttering when he had been comatose paled.

Morales and Schultz both exchanged glances. The admiral knowing what Cain was talking about, also wondering how Cain would know. Yet he kept those thoughts to himself and gave am order to Morales instead " Doc, you're his personal physician now. Grab whatever you need to keep him alive and go with him."

Morales nodded and left in a hurry.

Cain looked relieved and nodded to the admiral. " Good work, now shouldn't we get going?"

The admiral and the colonial left together with doctor Morales.

Ah, the joys of modern communication. Using his cellphone, the admiral had contacted Groom Lake and managed to contact the Pegasus, which luckily still had a couple of shuttles remaining in good enough condition to pick up Cain, the doctor and the admiral.

" Wow!" Morales reaction to finding herself in space wasn't all that to the commander and the admiral.

" The stars do pull, but a home on a planet, a wife, there are just some things..." Cain trailed off. Schultz nodded. " It's not unlike the sea." Morales nodded agreement, having spend part of her career shipboard.

" Oh by the way doctor, welcome on the Atlantis project. This is so far over top secret ..."

" To Hades with that, I need a medical officer aboard Pegasus, and you're it, doctor Morales." Cain blurted out as Admiral Schultz began reciting Navy rules and regulations again.

Morales smiled " Aye sir." She also noticed how Schultz now glared at Cain.

_Aboard the Atlantis, away from Earth._

" Message from Galactica sir, commander Apollo on screen."

" Captain Adams, I would like to see you and your groundforce commander aboard the Galactica as soon as practically possible."

" Not the council again, I hope."

" No, a miracle, you should see it for yourself though."

" I'll be aboard shortly."

" Thank you. Galactica out." I left the command dais and headed for the launchbay, asking David Cain to be paged to the landing bay as well.

We had a short trip over.

A major Boomer was waiting for us, together with Starbuck, who had taken a chance to see some old friends.

" As soon as you've finished Decon procedures I'm to take you to the lifestation." Boomer then motioned us to enter the chambers.

The procedure wasn't really anything to talk about. Exiting the chambers we followed the major.

The Galactica's life station was indeed a sight. Not only was it spacious, and oddly enough rather empty, there were machines there the use of which I couldn't even begin to imagine.

We didn't stay long in the general ward as Boomer led us to a separate room. Where we found Apollo, another colonial officer with the rank of captain and a woman about Apollo's age, in a bed, looking as if she had either been without sunlight for too long or suffered a very near brush with death.

Again I saw David Cain straighten his shoulder.

Apollo gave us a brief glance and then spoke " Which one of them, Sheba?"

She pointed to David whispering "him."

I frowned, but watched as acting out instinct David Cain sat down beside the bed. With the effort, Sheba managed to reach out with her hand to him.

David reached out and took it.

_Somewhere beyond the heavens, but close to the Galactica_

John sighed, relieved and exited all at once. The pawns were in motion.

He also heard Iblis laugh.

" So you set your pawns John."

John didn't respond, allowing Iblis his own floor.

" What makes you think I haven't moved mine."

_Earth space_

Cain smiled as he saw the bridge of his Pegasus. " Very well done indeed, admiral Schultz." There were even cheers from some of the duty bridge crew, whilst the composite Navy crew stood ramrod straight at attention.

" As you were." Cain looked a little miffed as the Navy personnel returned to their station.

The admiral winced briefly as Cain stared him down. Such military procedure was new to Cain, and unheard of in the current colonial military, or what remained of it. But he decided to talk to the admiral about it later. There were more pressing matters at hand.

" Status report."

" Scopes are clear." A voice from the crew pit reported.

" A little too clear perhaps. Helm, patrol course Alpha, but keep us in range of Earth." Cain ordered.

Again, the Pegasus moved out, under her own power.

_Cylon baseship_

With yet another baseship failing to report in, Command centurion Taurko's ship had been dispatched to find its missing companion. Taurko, a veteran of many battles against the humans, had no doubt about who was really responsible for the disappearance.

Cain, one of the thoughest human opponnents the Cylons had ever faced.

That's why Taurko had smaller patrols out, looking for traces of tylium and the human ion trail. Even though the intelligence was by now outdated, the centurion knew that there would be no way that Cain would have a full crew. Could he?

Then Taurko remembered another report. Forces led by Baltar and Spektor were still in pursuit of the Galactica. There had been not a sign of the Pegasus, yet.

Only one way to proceed in this. Taurko ordered his ship to come to a full stop whilst sensors were switched to passives only. The waiting game began, again.


	14. Chapter 14

I was standing alone in the briefing room, watching from the Atlantis how we idled along in formation with the Galactica. Some of the refugee fleet vessels were also visible. We were afcourse travelling at the speed of the slowest vessels.

Still, I had time to be amazed. Adama and Apollo had literally pulled of a miracle. Getting nearly a million people out of a genocidic hell, moving through space for the promised land. And now they were nearly there.

But what came afterward... for some reason I felt myself shivering.

" You seem frightened."

As the voice came out of nowhere, I turned around, very startled.

It wasn't any of the colonials, nor of my crew or staff for that matter.

I had never seen him before.

" Surprised and perhaps astonished is a better word." I answered.

He, it looked like a man to me, smiled. " Perhaps you shouldn't be. It's only providence that puts me here."

My only response was to frown.

" And why might your arrival be, providence?"

" Why my dear captain Adams, I do believe that you need guidance in dealing with these colonials."

Again I frowned. " Why?"

" doesn't time tell all?"

I shook my head, not really believing what I was hearing. Yet for some reason my spider sense was sending warnings. Whoever this entity was, he was trouble, with a capital T.

" Time heals all wounds. If the colonists are really refugees, we can provide them a home on Earth and ask them to protect us from any threats from space in return, fair offer, don't you think?"

The intense look on his face said enough to me.

" Indeed. But what if I told you that there is no such element in these within colonial society that seek to end this."

My spider senses were shifting into higher gear. Everything I had seen from whoever this was, was trouble, BIG trouble.

Time for a little test. " I know commander Apollo is the head of the military, are you saying the council has different plans?"

Utter silence.

" Actions speak louder then words, captain."

I had a flashback of another battlestars bridge, smoke and flames everywhere. It looked like a mixed crew of colonial and, to my own astonishment, navy personnel.

" Status report." It was Cain that said it.

" We seem to have gotten through the fighters. Baseship is coming up, her weapons are charged."

" Continue on course, fire as she bears."

After a few moments and some vibrations to the deck, which I could feel, the damage and gunnery reports began to come in.

" Get us to point blank range, then ready missile one and two."

" Ready missile one and two, aye sir." The voice of admiral Schulz rang through my ears.

Again the entity cut in " Do you understand now?"

I nodded appreciatively. " I do indeed."

" so what did they do to incur your wrath?"

Again that silence.

The answer came from a rather unexpected direction., the entrance to the room itsself. " We did exactly nothing."

The entity turned

It was Sheba, supported by David Cain, and her husband.

He seemed softened by her appearance. " Sheba!"

Sheba, still in her medical garb, continued " When the Cylons came we defended ourselves, and we continue to defend ourselves against the Cylons, count Iblis."

" Nice of you to introduce yourself, count."

It got me a polite nod from the entity I now knew as the count. "I figured it polite to wait with introductions until we were all complete. Now we are."

" Whatever his plans are captain, I urge you not to thrust him."

I nodded. " Trust should be earned, not given."

I saw Iblis frown after my comment.

" Then you seek proof?" Iblis nodded, clearly thinking to himself.

" Then you shall have it."

Before I could blink my eyes we were no longer on the Atlantis, but we were someplace else. The best description would be a mountain top. A short distance away was a tent.

Iblis directed me to enter the tent.

" I'll be along presently."

" I'm sure you will." I sat myself down near the fire and waited, contemplating what Iblis could bring up as a challenge.

The waiting period wasn't too long.

He came back 30 minutes later. " Come outside, there is something you must see."

I followed him as he walked to the edge of a hill.

" Behold."

It was a site I knew I'd never see again. The shortest and best description was that in some way and somehow had assembled an emmisary from all things in the known space. The assembly was stretched for miles across the plain

" I´m impressed."

" I thought you would be."

" All of them, subjugated to me. They do my bidding, and mine alone. I will set them free, if the colonials will choose me as their ruler." As if to reinforce his point a line of Cylon centurions appeared near the bottom of the hill.

I looked down from the hill. Many species, all the more special then the other. Every color and creed in the universe must have been assembled on that plain. So a lot of races served Iblis.

It just made me curious.

" Why?"

" Why not. Power and goals, isn't that something that binds the universe."

I laughed, and kept on laughing.

" Oh ye of little faith."

At Iblis' enraged look my laughing got only worse. " Mocking me is not beneficial to your health, captain Adams."

I nodded, the laughing fading from my lips and ears.

" Power and goals it is. I'll tell you this then. Goals yeah, it helps to challenge yourself, to grow beyond what you are and maybe even who you are." I paused.

" But power, absolute power like yours..." I paused for a bit, waiting to collect both my thoughts and words.

" Power like yours is a bad thing. Why should everyone be the same? Why should I be reverred like a god? I'm not god and for some reason I don't think you are either."

I could see Iblis beginning to seethe with anger.

" We humans have always been different. Although we haven't always shown we care for our fellow man enough to forget said differences. So yes, We've made mistakes, but we're getting there."

" So be it then." The count sighed and raised both his hands.

" Hold!"

It seemed a voice of power, authority much like my own to me that appeared out of nowhere.

The only thing I saw was a great white light, like the famous light at the end of the tunnel, now hanging between myself and the count. I made sure to stand perfectly still and waited what was to come.

" Oh now Bill, please be at ease, I'm not here for you."

For some reason I found myself looking at the face of an old friend, Max Steiner. I wondered how he could look so healthy as he had been dead for the last seven years!

Max seemed to be able to read my mind. " I'll explain later. For now, it's important to get you back to Atlantis and moving, the Cylons are on their way, and even Atlantis will have to fight."

And within the blink of an eye I was back in the briefing room, watching the fleet, with Max Steiner standing right beside me.

" A battlestar is an awsome sight, isn't it."

" It is. What brings you back, from the dead that is?" I snickered involuntarily, but realised that something much bigger concerning the rag-tag fleet of ships was going on.

" Iblis. He's messing around again."

" I take it Iblis is something akin to Satan?" Max his silence was rather telling all on its own. " Whatever you do, get them into Earth's solar system, pronto."

And with that, Max Steiner, one of the very people I was honoured to call a friend, was gone again, leaving me wondering what else this part of the universe that we had suddenly chanced upon had in store.

_Earth's solar system_

Cain and the admiral were hovering near one of the newly installed upgrades aboard the Pegasus.

" ESM gear, we modified it to look for weird pulses and anything else out of the ordinary you recorded on your way over."

" Take a look at these guys here." Schulz pointed to a series of what Cain noticed were wavelons.

" Notice how steady the signal is, and gaining?" Cain nodded.

" So there's another one out there."

" Commander, as soon as these bozos turn, we'll follow them back to their nest. And then it'll get interesting."

" No it won't, we'll just blast them to bits." With that said Cain ordered the helm to follow the Cylons. For some reason Jerry Schulz didn't share the colonial's optimism, but kept the thoughts to himself.

_Aboard the lead Cylon patrol craft_

The command centurion keyed a few switches near his command seat. " The plan is working. The battlestar is following."

Taurko wasn't fazed. " Continue to the basestar."


	15. Chapter 15

15

15

Jerry Schulz hadn't bothered to leave the Pegasus bridge. With the Cylon danger this close, He knew it would end one way or the other way, and since this was ringside...

Schulz glanced over to where the weapons panel was. The current duty officer was colonial and performing a checkup of systems. A brief glance of the panel told Schulz nothing very reassuring. The Pegasus had two missiles remaining. Most of the laser batterys seemed intact. To the side of the armament panel was the flightboard.

Pegasus had half a flight of Vipers remaining. If it were to come to an altercation with Cylon fighters...

"Admiral?" Schulz his thoughts were interupted by another navy officer, wearing a flightsuit. A commander, or so Schulz saw.

" Yes commander, and, what unit do you command if you don't mind me asking."

" Skull squadron sir, we were supposed to be on planetary defense duty, but we got ordered to this wreck here sir."

" Commander," Schulz began eyeing the pilots nametag " Rabb, keep your ships ready to launch at short notice. Things are gonna get ugly."

" That bad?"

Schulz nodded and described Cain's plan as quickly as he could. " and that's it. He thinks he can surprise a basestar."

Rabb nodded " We'll be ready admiral."

He cast a brief glance towards Cain who had returned to the bridge. The colonial commander didn't see it and ask for an update on the current situation.

_Cylon base ship_

Taurko studied the readouts. With the help of the patrol and the new sensors they were drawing the human battlestar ever closer into the trap.

Yes, the time would be soon.

_Colonial Battlestar Pegasus_

" Helm slow us down." At Cain's order, the helm officer reset the Pegasus throttles. " Something's not right here."

Schulz sighed quietly. " You're damn right sir, we're probably..."

By then he and the rest of the crew were spread eagled across the several levels of the command deck. Through sheer will power and holding on the railing rather thightly, Cain prevented himself from going the way of his crew.

" damage report."

" We were hit!"

Having picked himself up of the deck Admiral Schulz made his way toward the command panel. " Incoming raiders."

" Launch Skull squadron!" it was more of a shout then an order.

The officer at the command panel was a colonial sergeant. He looked up to Cain who nodded to him to make it happen.

" What hit us?"

The sergeant checked the panel " Cylon baseship, coming in on the positive Z axis."

Warp speed thinking was one of Jerry Schulz' s strong points. It would work again in this case but not before half the command platform disappeared in a series of explosive like flashes.

Out in space, Skull squadron went to work with a vengeance, taking pages straight out of the colonial flying manual, and writing their own in the proces.

" Status report?" Schulz voice seemed to be able to cut through most of the din of just about everything else.

" Main engines at 50 percent, we have a fire in Beta bay, the Alpha deck and Gamma deck. Damage control teams are responding but it's gonna be a while." Schulz felt like slugging the colonial.

" Weapon status?"

" Main fire control is down. They're booting up auxilliary control but it'll be online in two centons."

" where's the Cylon?"

" Sitting comfy at our astrums and waiting."

" He's probably watching the outcome of the fighter battle, hoping to finish us off at his leisure." Schulz nodded, a plan already formed in the back of his mind.

" Armament?"

" Three missiles left, starboard laser batteries nearly all out of action, port side fully operational."

" Helm control, I need you to coordinate for the following maneuver. At my signal I want you to pitch the bow full down and roll us to the left in such a way as to present a full port aspect to that baseship."

Schulz glanced at the weapons panel.

" Weps, once the lasers have a solution I want you to plan an alpha strik with all remaining missiles. You need to plot a solution that stays clear of the lasers. Understood?"

The weapons officer had some pretty horrific injuries of his own, but stayed on his post and could only nod as he started entering data into his panel.

" Are we ready?" It wasn't until then the admiral realised the doctor was working on Cain on the command dais. He had seen't but had been hell bent on just staying alive.

The weapons officer now nodded positively as did the helm control.

" Engage!"

_Cylon baseship_

" Human battlestar is accelerating and firing..." The centurions report trailed off into some thunderous booms as the close impacts from laser fire told the tale.

" Return fire, match their course and start targetting mega pulsars."

Would Taurko have had human emotion, the following respons would have stunned him

" Mega pulsar controls offline."

" Return fire, all batteries."

" The humans are launching missiles out of our targetting arc."

It was the last thing Taurko heard before the command center disappeared in a firestorm.

_Pegasus_

Besides the cheers of the crew, some of the officers exhaled quietly. They had lived through another day yet again.

" Status on our fighters?"

" Skull squadron reports disengagement from the Cylons."

" give them rendezvous coordinates and prepare for fighter recovery and get me a status on the damage control effort. I'll be in the life station."

Schulz didn't walk easily, but hurried along as fast as he could. He had a bad feeling, a really bad feeling which only increased in intensity as he got closer.

_Pegasus life station_

" Hit him again, max volt!" It was the doctor he had brought with him, Morales, shouting it. " No use sir, he's gone."

" confirmed, no brain activity." The voice had a slight colonial accent to the spoken English of Morales.

As he approached, Schulz noticed they had been working on a Colonial.

" Doc?"

Morales held a breath for a moment then turned around from the treatment table and reported what had happened.

Out in space, Harmon Rabb junior found time to catch his breath. " Skulls check in."

A few moments later the Captain normally in charge of the Navy JAG found out that he had lost a full third of his squadron. But atleast he had a place to call home. The Cylons didn't anymore.

A small number of Cylons raiders that tried to follow the retreating Vipers were shot down by the rear guard.

As Skull lead, Rabb was the last to land.

After going through the deconn procedures he headed up to the bridge.

Only to find utter shambles

" What's going on here?" Another colonial sergeant temporarily stopped his work and came over to him.

" Sir, the admiral is in the life station." Rabb left running.

Out of breath he found Schulz sitting on one of the beds. The admiral was out of it. Outward there wasn't much of a sign of it, but Harmon Rabb knew what shock looked like.

" Admiral, snap out of it."

Rabb shook him and when he saw no effect, repeated it.

" Admiral, snap out of it!"

" That 'll be quite enough, commander." Doctor Morales had noticed Rabb coming in and had briefly followed him before other more pressing matters demanded her attention. She came back to check on the admiral.

Rabb turned around to face the doctor. Only then did he notice the carnage.

" What happened in here?"

Morales looked rather grim at the carnage " We took a number of hits, esspecially on the starboard side, most of the casualties were from there."

" What happened to the admiral?"

" Apparently he was on the bridge, they took a hit there too." Rabb noticed Morales becoming rather hesitant the same moment.

" What happened on the bridge, doc?"

Again Morales hesitated. Rabb repeated the question.

" They just brought Cain down, he's critical. You're the senior surviving officer."

Rabb exhaled rather sharply for a brief moment. " Allright, I'll be on the bridge oh and doc, keep me informed on Cain."

Morales nodded and went back to work while Harmon Rabb headed for the bridge.

It was still chaos but Rabb's voice soon got through it. " I need a damage report, as soon as possible."

" Ehm sir, you might wanna take a look at this." A navy Chief called Rabb over to his position. Rabb found the chief looking at one of the larger monitors that had a diagram of the battlestar on it. The highlighted diagram showed him something he didn't want to see.

Fire!

A serious fire had developed on the starboard side of the Pegasus.

" Status on the fire?"

" Not good, it's working it's way inward, feeding of the oxygen in the rest of the ship."

" Options?"

" If we were on Earth, I'd say flood the entire burning area, but that's not an option here, is it sir." The chief responded.

Rabb shook his head negatively. " No it isn't." He briefly gazed at the star field and started to laugh.

" We have the vacuum of space to put out the fire with."

The chief gave the commander an I don't believe you face. " Sir, that's a pretty dangerous thing to do."

" I know chief, but it beats going up in flames altogether."

The chief admitted that his commander had a point.

" Oh and chief, might want to call for volunteers." The chief nodded and started up some other equipment. Rabb had his volunteers ten minutes later.

He briefed them as quickly as possible on what he had planned.

The two volunteers were suited up and underway within twenty minutes.

Nearly everybody that wasn't too busy effecting repairs, stopped to listen to the proceedings.

Rabb didn't realise he was holding his breath.

He finally inhaled deeply as the two men reported they were safe inside the ship.

" Detonate!"

After the vibrations of the detonations and other assorted things had subsided, Rabb noticed Morales coming towards him, watery eyed.


	16. Chapter 16

16

_the White house, __oval office _

President Thomas Blaine had studied the last report from his CNO, admiral Janet Dewey, also present in the Oval office with him.

" This is not good."

" That's an understatement, mr president. Although Captain Adams has a point in his last report before his departure. The colonials have somewhat of an infrastructure with them and we need that."

Blaine nodded. He had read the reports that had reached him from Cain next to those of Adams. The potential the colonials had with them...

His thougths were interupted by a buzzer. It was his secretary.

" Mr Jameson and Mr Taggert to see you sir."

Blaine told her that they could come in. Then he told Dewey the envoy to the UN and the secretary of commerce were coming in.

Jameson, a fat middle aged man who apparently had been to too many 'diplomatic' parties got straight to the point. The secretary of commerce walked over to admiral Dewey and briefly shook hands with her

" Mr president, I am here on a grave matter. It has come to my attention that a mission from our military has come into contact with a potential ally in outer space."

Blaine said nothing. Neither did Dewey.

" It has also come to my attention that these allies might be refugees that are looking to settle on Earth."

Now Blaine cast an eery glance towards Jameson.

" They may, then again they may not. This matter has yet to be decided by this office, mr Jameson."

The commerce secretary chose then to speak " Mr President, if you do plan to allow said refugees to settle on Earth, how will this effect key economic markers like housing and jobs?"

Blaine smiled. That was something he had an answer for, or at least part of it. " I'm not sure what this will do to the housing market, Rick. The upstart is jobs though. Although NASA and their army of subcontractors won't like it, the colonials are way, way more advanced then anything NASA has on the boards."

Both men saw the admiral stiffle a laugh before she spoke up.

" There is one alternative though."

The three men looked at her with genuine interest now and continued to do that while she explained her plan.

In the end she convinced them.

" So it's agreed then?" She asked

" I'll sign on it." Blaine answered

" I can live with it." Taggart, the commerce secretary answered. Now they all turned to Jameson, the UN envoy.

" It's a start." He answered.

" So what else..."

" I'll make my position known on the matter, sir, should it arise. Good day to you all."

" I wonder what that was all about."

" Almost looked like a factfinding mission." The admiral commented frowning of her own accord. She didn't know how close she was to the truth.

_Executive drive_

The limousine left the White house parking lot the usual way. Instead of one occupant and the driver, there were now two.

" And?"

" As usual you are correct. They are on their way here."

" You know what to do, mr president."

Jameson smiled ever so slightly.

" I understand perfectly, count Iblis." While the limousine drove on the count again disappeared into thin air.

Only to be replaced by someone else!

" And who the blazes might you be? Or is it what might you be?"

" You wouldn't begin to comprehend even if I explained it to you. Therefore, you might call me Luke."

Jameson kept his mouth shut.

" You're one of the counts men?"

" Not exactly."

Luke went on to explain who he really was, and who the count was and what he was doing.

" So Iblis is right, the colonials are bringing their war to our doorstep. This is not good, not good at all."

" Mr Jameson, this is not the colonials war. This is humanitys war. Think about it." With that, Luke also disappeared like the count had done, leaving a rather miffled Jameson in the limousine.

_Out in space_

With the Pegasus in semi good hands and condition, Rabb left the bridge together with the doctor.

He stopped her halfway there " How are the admiral and the commander doing?"

The tearjerker eyes from doctor Morales told him more then he wanted to know. " The commander is dead, sir. But the admiral seems to be coming out of his shock though."

" Let me see the admiral."

Morales led Rabb deeper into the life station.

They found the admiral first.

He was sitting on one of the beds in the corners of the station, slightly shivering under a blanket. He didn't really seem to respond but noticed them anyway by looking up.

" As you can see the admiral is in shock. We've sedated him. I'm hoping to get him and the worst wounded on a shuttle to Earth as soon as possible."

Rabb nodded " That would help us quite a bit. Now what else did you want me to see?"

Morales asked for Rabb to follow him.

It was a separate threatment room. In the middle of it was a stretcher, and on it was someone, covered under a sheet. By looking at the boots, Rabb already knew he was dealing with a colonial, a very dead colonial.

" Is that who I think it is?"

Morales lifted the sheet, and then nodded positively.

" Oh boy. I suppose we should let Admiral Dewey know."

_Earth_

_Office of the C-JCS_

An aide to the commander of the communications center in the Pentagon had run the entire distance to the office of the chairman.

He didn't bother knocking on the door but rushed right in.

" Sir, we have a message from the Pegasus."

Dewey got up from behind the desk and approached her aide and took the message from him.

_From BSG Pegasus_

_Prevented Cylon basestar from entering the system. Battlestar damaged but functioning. Expecting to send the worst casualties to Earth pending status. Please alert appropriate hospitals. Further messages should situation warrant it._

The admiral put the sheet down. " Send a message received to the Pegasus, and tell them the Navy hospitals will start preparations for casualty receival oh and Lieutenant, when those shuttles get here I want to be the first one aboard when they go back up."

The lieutenant nodded and began walking back to the comms center.

_Battlestar Pegasus_

" Message from Earth sir." The duty comms sailor handed Rabb the message printout.

_C-JCS appraised of the situation, plans visit on first available shuttle. Hospitals alerted to your casualties. Evacuate at your own perogative._

Most of the Navy personnel were rather surprised to hear their temporary commanding officer groan.

" Alright I want a viper patrol to patrol the approaches between Earth and us. In the meantime I also want a course change to bring us closer to Earth."

The nearby officers nodded and went to their respective duty stations to pass on the orders.

Slowly, the wounded battlestar changed course.

_Battlestar Atlantis_

Commander Apollo, president of the council of the twelve was on my bridge again. Watching, learning and generally be amazed at how we operated here on Atlantis.

" You run a pretty interesting ship, Captain Adams." Apollo commented as I showed them some of the _other _ things we had aboard.

In this case it was a security excercise held jointly between the SEALS and the Marines. Since the SEALS were my assault force I had them playing the part of the boarding party. The Marines had the job of defending the ship.

It got interesting to say the least.

The SEALS managed an effective boarding through the starboard bay. They got as far as the exits of the tram tunnels.

David Cain was pissed to say the least. The commander of the colonial ground force, a colonel Croft, was smiling rather broadly though.

Together with Apollo I attended the debriefing. Through sheer luck, I found myself sitting next to Colonel Croft. I asked him what went wrong for the SEALS in a whisper.

Croft told me " Nothing. Their plan was good. Your Marine colonel figured out most of her stuff correctly. All three parties were wiped out with due discretio. Your Marines are better in both roles of shipboard and landing force. Your SEALS are good in raiding and intelligence gathering. I think you should play your strengths."

Play our strenghts... those words would echo through my mind in the years to come. And those words would help me along from the second battle of Mars and so on.

_Battlestar Pegasus_

Harmon Rabb stood alone in the Pegasus Alpha Flightbay whilst shuttles began departing with the wounded. One of the first shuttles was returning now, with admiral Dewey aboard.


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

Chapter 17

Admiral Janet Dewey was impressed. There was no honour guard on the flight deck, but considering the circumstances, she didn't really mind. She noticed Rabb was alone. Around him, stretchers with wounded were moved aboard waiting shuttles. All of them had been sedated, so there were no cries of pain or other things like that.

He saluted as she came up to him.

" No need for that Harm."

" Yes sir."

The two headed for one of the nearby elevators.

" What's your current status?"

Harm made a grimace " Could be better, all things considered. The fire is out and the affected hull sections are being sealed as we speak. The laser systems are also recharging, but we're running out of missiles."

Rabb went on to explain just how the colonial missiles worked.

Now the Admiral frowned " Without those missiles she's just another carrier sitting here waiting to be picked off. What about the wrecks of those two Cylon basestars?"

He answered he had a salvage operation under way. But didn't anticipate too much of it.

" Anything's better then nothing. Now, what's the tactical situation?"

" I have Vipers out scouting if we have Cylons in system."

Dewey nodded " Anything else."

" Yeah."

He took her in a different direction.

_Pegasus life station_

Morales met them at the entrance. " Hey doc, where's the admiral?" Morales told the two officers that she had to move the admiral. She showed them where.

He looked better then the last time Rabb had seen him. Judging from the plate, Admiral Schulz had at least eaten something, but he still returned a 5thousand yard stare. " Since he's amongst those with least injuries he'll be shipped off as one of the last."

Dewey nodded appreciatively. " Anything else?"

" Yes mam, if you would please follow me."

Morales led them to the morgue and for the second time showed them the problem they were going to have to face.

" I see your dilemma, Harm, but we'll have to cross that bridge when we get there."

" If we get there. If more Cylon basestars enter the system..."

" A lot of ifs indeed, but we're here to find some answers to those ifs, commander." And with that she left the morgue, Harmon Rabb on her heels.

_Pegasus bridge._

Although the bridge was partially in ruins, it was still a sight to behold. Rabb heard the admiral gasp. " This puts the CIC on all our ships to shame, doesn't it."

He nodded " This is altogether something else."

" Status on the salvage mission?"

" We're coming up on the second ship now." A colonial Deck officer reported.

" And the first one?"

" No joy yet." Both the commander and the admiral looked at the man " It sounds easier then nothing to report, sirs."

Harm looked a little surprised to the admiral but, Janet Dewey had to admit that she was also surprised to hear the colonials were picking up Earth English rather quickly.

" Have them take anything goes boom, I have an idea."

" Aye sir."

_In a different sector of space__,_

" due to the distance involved setting up the connection it may take some time to reach Imperious leader." Baltar nodded for Lucifer to proceed, and began to wait.

Lucifer returned sooner then expected.

" We have a connection now. Imperious leader wishes to speak with you."

" Put him on."

With just a few inaudible clicks, the video screen in front of him sprang to life.

" By your command, your eminence."

Imperious leader stayed silent for a brief moment but then spoke

" Ah Baltar, it seems the reports aren't quite sure about what happened. Are you?"

Baltar felt his neck itch.

" It would seem the Galactica has received reinforcements. These reinforcements first attacked us, destroying our support baseship. Upon further investigation of the debris field left after the battle, one of Spectre's ship was nearly destroyed by a strange warhead left in there."

The imperious leader remained quiet for some time.

" It is proceeding as I haven't foreseen." Imperious leader stated before bending forward somewhat.

" Within this transmission you'll find a set of coordinates. Meet me there with your forces."

And with that he was gone. The centurion at the navigational array indicated that he had received a series of coordinates. Baltar indicated that his ships should change course to rendezvous with Imperious leader.

_Galactica_

Apollo thought he'd rest easy after a hard days work with Atlantis and me. He hadn't known how wrong he was.

The dream if it was that, was something he had been through before. Vella, Martin's pistol and Redeye.

He was in the square again, and Marcus wanted someone to give him a Pneumo. Instead they saw he had his blaster...

Redeye came out and the human and the Cylon made ready.

Apollo was quicker on the draw.

He watched the beam hit Redeye, only nothing happened.

" You see, Apollo, I still win."

" Iblis." Apollo hissed.

The face and body of the centurion changed into Iblis who slowly lifted his hand. The lightning bolt already crackling.

He launched with all the fury that the evil one could muster.

First a flash and then nothing.

Startled, Apollo woke up. Next to him, Sheba still slept, peacefully and serene.

" It was a dream.." He whispered, before trying to get back to sleep, and failing miseraby.

He was on Atlantis the very next morning.

_Atlantis Conference Room _

The first words out of his mouth were "I know why we haven't seen them."

I was all ears as the commander of the Galactica explained his theory. By the time he was finished, I was more then a little worried...

_Somewhere near Earth_

If the command Centurion mark II were a human, the closest comparison would be that he or maybe even she looked luike a bodybuilder. Moving with a certain purpose, he entered the command chamber of that supreme being of all Cylons, the Imperious leader, who was facing the wall.

The centurion waited until his leader had turned

" A status report has arrived from the forces of Baltar and Spectre, my lord."

" What does it say?"

" Their repairs took slightly longer then anticipated but they should be joining us within the duty cycle."

" Understood. Please inform Lord Baltar that I wish to convene with him and Spektre as soon as they arrive."

" By your command."

On one of the nearby screens in the command chamber navigational data leading to Earth was streaming.


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 17B

I had a conference call with my own staff after Apollo returned to the Galactica. We were in trouble, that much was certain. The Cylons hadn't been spotted in at least two weeks now. There was no indication of a ship trailing us just beyond scanner range.

Colonel Merryweather had probably figured out what was going on. For she stated that.

" The Cylons are massing their forces for an attack."

Starbuck agreed with her, stating that things were too quiet for his liking. The problem however was twofold. We basically had three battlestars and needed to defend two locations at the same time. I asked him what he thought Cain would do.

Starbuck didn't reply.

He just gazed at the starmaps.

" Earth, their target is Earth." It came out of nowhere.

" What do you mean their target is Earth?"

Starbuck walked over to the display and highlighted the planet's position and ours.

" because that makes the most sense. If the Cylons can block us from getting to Earth..." He trailed off.

I let the reality of his comment sink in.

" Get me Apollo!"

_Galactica bridge_

Apollo stood on the command dais. This much I saw when we made our final transmission. "God speed Galactica, we'll see you when its over at home."

I saw him nod. " That's appreciated, commander Adams. May the lords of Kobol go with you and your crew. Galactica out."

When the transmission was terminated I ordered Atlantis to jump.


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 18.

_barnard's star_

We didn't jump all that far. The region of Barnard's star being close enough for us to watch the approaches to Earth, amongst other things.

"Full emcon, I don't want those tin cans to find out we're here just yet." I watched as across the entire bridge terminals began shutting down, at that same moment the illumination also began to come down from its regular levels.

Not five minutes later, Colonel Merryweather reported that there wasn't a peep of electronic radiation eminating from the battlestar.

" Allright, set a circular course through this sector. I want maximum passive sensors and telescopes. Eyes and ears people. All pilots to cockpit readyness."

The waiting game, how I hated it, yet, how I must endeavour to be a master if I want to bring the crew home. The voice of a single man interupted my thoughts.

" A game with many stakes sometimes isn't a game at all."

He was an older gentleman, and I can say this with that much certainty, he spoke with a British accent. He wore a suit, white all over." Please, no need for that kind of reaction." He saw me reaching for the M9 I carried in a shoulder holster.

" Who are you?"

" You may call me John. I also believe you have met one of my associates?"

" Which two?" I didn't get a reply at first but when he mentioned my old friend....

" Okay, I take it your not friends with a certain Count Iblis?"

John laughed. " Quite the understatement, Captain Adams."

I nodded. " Yes, I know but when someone shows you some of the miracles of the universe within the limits of 24 hours,..... let's just say I'm a sceptic."

As an extra comment I felt the count wasn't a real threat if you removed the Cylons.

" Iblis exploited a weakness within the Cylon empire for his own gain. And he set the universe alight with them."

" I know. The perfect war machine, no pain, no emotion, only orders are orders. Extermination and genocide."

John smiled briefly " You are correct." He went on to tell me that although the Colonials had tried to defeat the Cylons, it had taken them a thousand of their years, and they were still defeated.

" We're not the bloody Colonials, John."

" No, you aren't, and you never will be. Mars and Ares will see to that." And just like that he was gone.

And I was back on the bridge of the Atlantis again. So we didn't need to be here.

" Navigation, course for Earth, maximum speed."

_earth space._

It couldn't have been more then five minutes and we were back! And pressed for time as well. I ordered a rapid course change for Mars. " And get me the Pegasus!"

_Battlestar Pegasus_

Janet Dewey was debating a little strategy with Rabb and the senior surviving colonial nco when the communications officer reported a message coming in on fleetcomline Alpha. Dewey and Rabb ran to the pedestal.

I was as surprised to see Dewey as I was surprised to see Rabb, and they looked very surprised to see me!

" Adams, you're back." It wasn't a question, it was a fact. Dewey was quick to ask my status.

" Status green. We're on course for Mars. I have reason to believe there is something there that will aid us in the fight against the Cylons."

Dewey nodded appreciatively. " They' re heading here, aren't they?"

Now it was my time to nodd. " Starbuck thinks they are. Commander Apollo agreed with me and allowed me to warn you. I also received some intelligence that there maybe something on Mars. We're heading there now."

Dewey glanced at the tactical plot. "We can be there in three hours."

" We'll see you there."

_Mars Space_

Since Atlantis was in a better condition then the Pegasus, we got to Mars first. I ordered the scanners to full and small viper patrols out over the planet to look for anything and everything out of the ordinary.

Steve also flew.

Whilst coordinating the search effort his trajectory brought him over the highest mountain in the solar system, the Olympus Mons. "Just look at the size of that mother." Steve didn't say it out that loud. He briefly rolled his Viper slightly so he could see the size of the Olympus Mons better.

There was something that caught his eye, the reflection of sunlight on metal.

He reported it in.

I had Atlantis overhead not 5 minutes later. The scans were concentrated on the area where Steve had spotted the reflection.

I had quickly gone down to the mess to get something to eat. The PA interupted me when I was halfway through with the request to call the bridge.

" Captain Adams here."

" Sir, I think we found something, doctor Quinn wants to show you something as well."

" I'm on my way."

The information on the scanner screen and Serena's presentation prompted me to order a shuttle to be readied along with two squads of colonel Merryweathers Marines. Steve would fly the shuttle. Serena would be mission commander, and I'd be along for the ride, as something akin to a mission specialist.

But first there was the arrival of the Pegasus. I was surprised to see the Battlestar in one whole piece. There were whole pieces of the super structure missing and the hits she had taken. I wondered what had happened while we were away. Much of it I would find out later, after the events on Mars.

" This is some landscape." Serena reported as we were approaching the mountain range.

" I know." Then it all of a sudden occurred to me " At least we can serve the champaign when we're back. We reached Mars!"

Steve now chuckled too " We went a lot further then that, skipper."

" Yeah I know. But we're the first ones to set foot on this red planet, aren't we?"

" Yes sir, that we are. And please brace yourself, ladies and gentlemen, we're coming up on our landing zone." At the mention of landing zone, the two vipers that had been escorting us broke off and headed away from us.

Steve put the shuttle in hover.

In front of us there was the entrance to a cave, a gargantuan cave.

When we didn't move after several minutes I asked Steve why we were stopped. Steve looked a little scared but told me anyway " Remember the Empire Strikes Back?"

" You're afraid of slugs?" Serena Quinn blurted out, a rather fierce scowl already appearing on her face.

Trying to find a way to put Steve at ease, I noticed the scanner wasn't showing any life signs within at least 500 miles of our shuttle. " There's no lifesigns around, Steve."

" That doesn't make me feel any better, skipper."

" Take us in anyway. And switch on the floodlights." Steve did as he was told and the shuttle began moving again.

The sunlight didn't get us very far into the cave. The floodlights on the shuttle had ample power to show us there were no real obstacles on our way.

" You could probably fit a battlestar in here." A Marine remarked as he got a quick eye on the screen. I silently agreed with him. Was this cave to big to be either man or machine made instead of just plain natural?

I got my answer not all that much later.

" We're coming up on something."

" What is it?"

It sounded rather ominous " Something metalic."

The shuttle slowed to a crawl and then stopped completely.

One of the spotlights was now under manual control, with the end of the beam resting on something that looked like the hatch you see on the deck a of submarine. And said hatch was in one of the biggest caves I had ever seen.

Serena's face was a little tight. I glanced at her " Fear of the unknown?"

" Something like that."

My spider sense also tingled so I asked Steve to scan the entire area, again.

It came up empty. One other member of the science staff, who was along for the ride, had an atmospheric scanner with here. " The levels of co2 out there make it necessary to wear breathing gear."

At the mention of breathing gear two of the Marines headed aft. One came back with a couple of packs while the other one carried a couple of boxes. From the packs came the breathing gear. From the boxes came parkas and other assorted bad weather gear.

We quickly changed.

Steve landed the shuttle near the hatch and then changed into the gear as well.

New atmospheric scans showed the air all around the shuttle to be consisting of nothing but CO2. The ambient temperature was rather chilly, but with the parkas and the cold weather gear we'd be okay for a bit, which would probably be long enough to open the hatch.

At my cue the shuttle ramp was lowered and we walked out.

Using the lights on the breathing gear and the tactical lights from the Marine rifles we found no booby traps on the hatch. Without thinking any further Steve and I began turning the locking mechanism. The Marines kept their weapons at the ready.

With the audible hiss of escaping air, we slowly swung open the hatch. " Airlock." Was the thing no one said aloud.

One of the Marines, a sergeant Taggert, aimed his rifle down the chute and declared he saw nothing.

" It's also possible this is an escape hatch, Bill." Serena commented as she studied the hatch dimensions."

One of the Marines chimed in that it would make sense. After all, why lock yourself in a vault if there was no chance of getting out......

" Alright. Time to go down there and see what it's all about. Any volunteers."

Utter silence.

" You're the archeology man, Bill." Serena said rather sweetly.......

I sighed once and lowered myself down unto Martian soil. Then I put my feet down the tube and found the ladder. Descend came automatically.

Fifteen minutes of descending made me one tired battlestar skipper.

Looking up briefly I thought I saw the lights of the others bobbing up and down as they were making their way towards me. While they did I took a little time to examin my surroundings.

With the lights included in the breathing gear I was barely able to make out something in the distance.

" Well, that sure took you guys long enough." I remarked as they finally reached the bottom.

Despite the darkness I saw Serena smile " We had to follow the example of our Imperious Leader naturally."

" Imperious leader has a few centurions to do his biding. I'm not that lucky." I also pointed out to sergeant Taggert that there might be a door up ahead.

" I'll check it out with second squad sir." Using their tactical lights the Marines cautiously advanced towards the door.

They called us in not a few moments later.

Taggert told me it was the same kind of hatch as up top, and that it hadn't been tampered with as far as he could see. Since the hatch was embedded in the wall, it wasn't saying all that much.

Muttering something about " No time like the present." I moved towards the door and gave the valve a whirl. A huge cloud of dust surrounded me and prompted one of the other Marines to remark that the cleaning lady hadn't been down here in a while.

" Look at the bright side, you could be the cleaners."

Serena was at my side as soon as the door swung open. " I just hope it's not another pyramid."

" I don't think it is, at all."

I gave her some details about what John had told me. Serena her eyes nearly bulged out of her sockets.

" Whoa! When this gets out. It will change the whole world as we know it."

" I thought Atlantis already more or less did that."

Serena went on to explain at more scientific stuff that I supposedly would have to deal with later. But not right now. My mind was set on the here and now.

" Sergeant Taggert, I'm inclined to believe that there may be an airlock up ahead. Would you be so kind to investigate."

Taggert nodded and went ahead with two Marines. Serena and I followed suite while Steve and the second Marine unit brought up the rear.

Our first find was the airlock I anticipated. I told Serena to stay quiet for a moment as I tried to figure out how to get everybody through in one setting. I tried the only lever I saw after the Marines had checked it for booby traps.

Again, the door opened inwards. But only this time there was a corridor of sorts. It was hard to make out due to a lighting failure.

" That's odd. I fully expected there to be an air lock here." I remarked as I glanced briefly down the corridor.

Serena chose that moment to shine again " What if Mars had an atmosphere at one time?"

" It means you'll have a life long job in figuring out what went wrong."

With a couple of Marines in the lead we went in.

Again our luck held. Some of the first signs we discovered, were in Colonial standard. One of the Marines did remark that it felt a little bit like the Doom game. I wondered if I cleared his fright up a little bit by asking which version of the game he was talking about.

I didn't get an answer.

Using the signs we made our way. I looked back briefly, noticing that the hatch we came in from was also marked with a particular sign.

I eyed Steve and he eyed me back. We were both wondering what had happened here. I also thought he had a hand resting his own weapon.

I finally spotted something I was looking for. An arrow indicating Alpha deck.

" This way."

We came up on another door, and this time I was sure there was an airlock. I called Sergeant Taggert over to me and discussed a few options on what to do.

I called over Steve and briefed him.

" You're to stay here with first squad. Should the situation warrant it. Leave. Head back to Atlantis and tell Merryweather she's in command."

I added that the colonel would have to hold the fort. Then, Serena and I, together with the marines, headed in.

" God speed guys." I thought I heard Steve whisper as the door closed behind us.


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 19

With an audible thud, the airlock apparently completed its hard seal. But to be on the safe side, I had the area scanned again.

" We can breathe here, sir, but the air is a little dusty and stale so it might be wise to keep our breathers handy." I nodded appreciatively. " We'll do just that." Then I unsealed the hatch.

Again that Doom game scenario......

I briefly wondered how long it had been since people had been down here. At the behest of Sergeant Taggert, the Marines were the first through the door.

Then came Serena, the other scientist and I.

We followed the arrows leading to the Alpha deck. While we were walking I struck up another conversation with Serena " Remember ever digging up any kind of castle?"

She nodded " Yes I do, but I never saw this in any desert."

" This is the Alamo, on Mars!" Patiently I explained to Serena what I thought happened here and where we now found ourselves. I added I was also using anything and everything I had learned while investigating Atlantis and our subsequent encounters with the Colonials.

" And, with the Atlantis experience behind us, we're far more prepared now then when we would have discovered this during any kind of NASA mission to Mars."

Taggert, who was walking nearby, politely coughed.

" Sir, do you think there's anyone alive down here? "

" I don't know, sergeant, I just don't know, but what I do know is I don't know if I really wanted to find out."

Walking on, we met the first signs that something serious had occurred. A couple of skeletons. They lay side by side, their heads pointing the directions we had come from. Serena kneeled down to study them as best as she could.

With what little I knew of forensics, I kneeled down beside her and peered in the direction we were heading.

" Escapees?"

" Maybe. It's weird, but, their uniform does resemble the Colonials somewhat."

I looked at the tattered remains of their clothing to see she had a point. " It's as if they're an earlier version."

" At least this," she indicated the remains " Will shut people up about life on Mars."

We left a chemlight marker as a means of finding our way back.

We saw a lot of signs of there having been some combat and also disrepair, but I attributed it to the volume of the dust. It was simply everywhere. Particles were showing up in our lightbeams, slightly blocking their use.

Yet despite that, we made good time.

" Finally!" The door that lead to what I thought was the command center came up in view. " Sergeant Taggert, check the area please."

The Marines cautiously approached the door, weapons at the ready and scanning the area for anything that could remotely be seen as a threat.

Nothing but dust was all they found.

" The area seems clear, sir." Taggert reported as we walked up after his signal.

I nodded my thanks and studied the door. There was basically nothing that indicated any sort of entrance or even something that would let us open the door.

Since the Marines hadn't spotted anything out of the ordinary I used my fingers to feel and look for anything that might make up an electronic eye.

The door hushed open before I knew what happened.

We peeked in. In the far distance I noticed a single computer terminal still active.

Again the Marines went first, and again, they found nothing.

Whilst the Marines kept an eye on us, Serena along with her coworker and I congegrated round the working monitor.

A black screen with a flickering cursor and a slight green background. I exhaled briefly " This is not going to be easy."

Serena nodded, agreeing with me but didn't say it.

I grabbed a nearby chair, removed some of the dust from it and sat down. The arm of my jacket provided another surface for dust removal. This time, it was the monitors turn.

" Well well, what have we here?"

" Looks like a status display of some sort." Serena commented as she saw what came out from under the dust.

" But of what?"

" You are the engineer and the captain, you tell me."

Since the screen showed a form of colonial language I wasn´t familiar with, I would either have to find a translation matrix from here or, just plainly guess. Not something to think about if you consider the possibly powersource we´d probably have under here.

Through a sheer stroke of luck I found the helpfile, and in my best colonial language, I found the translation matrix I was looking for.

I read it out loud "Ares Base status display" Serena would literally have to throw everything she knew and learned out the window now. Somehow I felt a little sorry for her. Yet my own path would probably be just as rocky. Would I be first Captain Kirk or......

The thoughts faded from my mind as I continued on through the display.

" Interesting. This base didn't have any type of fighters, but it did have a number of defensive emplacements, with a rather interesting concentration of them here and here." I pointed them out on screen.

Without really wanting to, I touched the screen.

The screen was immediately zoomed in on the area. I studied the concentration of turrets rather intently.

Together with the second concentration of turrets out there, I figured I knew what kind of base this used to be.

Yet another voice interupted the new line of thinking.

" Interesting, isn't it?"

The three of us turned as one.

To see a man standing right beside us.

I was the first to see that it wasn't John. Serena had the same line of thought apparently as she asked him who he o rather what he was.

The answer was simply stunning.

" I am Ares, commander of this base." He apparently noticed I seemed unsettled.

" This unsettles you?"

" Not quite. I have seen holograms before. Just nothing within your scope."

The Ares hologram didn't quite react as I intended. " Officially my name is Command Assistance Hologram Ares. As is the name for this base."

I nodded. So this was Ares on Mars.

" Alright then, Ares, what happened here?"

The reply consisted of three words " Acessing data archives."

Within a few minutes Ares reported back " Observe your screen." A few moments later the imagery began to show.

I watched, saddened, dumbstruck at the same time. Serena however interupted my thoughts by asking Ares a question

" So why is it that you allowed us entrance to your base."

Ares glanced at her. " If you were those you have seen, don't you think the base security systems would have........ tried to hinder you?" I watched Serena gulp. This was certainly something different then any Egyptian Pyramid she had ever been in.

That was when my spider sense kicked in.

" Who would we have seen?"

" Observe." He pointed at the main screen, which suddenly sprang to life. Voices permeated the stale air surrounding us.

" Form scan positive, multicrew attack craft."

" It's them." the voice had a sullen resignation to it.

" Battlestations!" In the distance a siren began to blare its familiar cry.

" Any ships nearby?"

" Yours is the only one left, sir."

" Raise them. Order them to launch all fighters and standby to engage any capitals."

The orders were carried out with the usual efficiency. All of us soon saw the telltale sign of a fighter battle in the distance.

Whoever they were, they seemed to be holding their own. Apparently sergeant Taggert thought the same. " It'll change though."

Taggert didn't know how right he was.

" New contacts." it was the same voice that reported " them"

" All batteries prepare to engage."

Within the cacophony of images of battle yet another voice appeared " What of the project?"

" There 'll be a time for that."

I glanced at Taggart. He glanced back. Sooner then later....

" More new contacts coming in. cruisers and six battleships." The camera changed again to show the ships. They had something familiar about them. I eyed both Serena and Ares. Serena seemed a little skittish while Ares seemed rather composed. Nothing unusual there yet.

" Have the project prepare. Their target will be the battleships."

" Yes sir." I heard how in the distance the orders were passed on.

But then " There's a message coming in, for you sir."

" who is it?"

" It's him, sir." Again that voice.....

" Very well." Again the screen switched. This time a reptilian like creature appeared. It, for lack of a better word, looked rather regal

" Emperor Korian. What brings you to this corner of the universe?"

The creature chuckled briefly. " As if you didn't know Ares. We are the order, you are the chaos. Where chaos reigns order must prevail."

I looked at Ares, who stood unmoving and still.

" So we are the chaos?"

" So you are. The universe decrees that we remove this chaos."

There was a brief pause.

" We fought you during the trek, your highness. what makes you think we can't fight and win again?"

" Observe."

Again the screen changed and this time, it showed a fleet, a massive fleet, arrayed for battle.

" Where are your other ships then, Ares?" It seemed as if the emperor was smiling. Perhaps he even knew the answer.

There was a sigh as I though I heard a whisper.

" On the third planet."

Strangely enough he didn't explain what they were doing there...... and there was that whisper again.

" And we've already gotten the word out that you were coming."

" It is of no consequence. We will eradicate you."

" Maybe, but it will cost you." was the response.

" A price that I am willing to pay, a price that the Empire is willing to pay."

" Then its a price you will pay first. Fire!"

The emperor seemed to have a brief time to wonder before the transmission disappeared into static snow.

" Did we get him?"

" Working on it." It resulted in a brief pause where anything pertaining to the general mumbo jumbo that usually takes places in a battle was heard coming through the transmission.

" Yeah, we got him."

" Good, now what's the status of my ship?"

" She's gone sir." I saw Ares nod. " Right, rig all stations for close combat."

The image was fast forwarded and another voice appeared. " They've past the third line, sir. There's nothing we can do."

" Very well, Evac your men."

The screen blanked out then.

" I won't bother you with the details of the rest."

" When did this happen?"

Serena answered before Ares did " Oh, about twothousand yahrens ago. It may be some more it may even be less."

" What is the special project?"

" You will have to find that out by yourself."

And with that he disappeared.

I looked at Serena. " We're gonna need a heck of a lot of people, again..." There wasn't a lot we could do now with the number of people we were, so I figured we might as well pull out again. Using the chemical lights the Marines had used we made our way back without too much difficulty.

The other Marines were rather pleased that we returned safely, Steve felt the same and stated in no certain terms that he didn't want go 'inside' like this ever again.

I answered that I couldn't really blame him.

We received the message to come to the Pegasus when we were at the halfway mark.

I wasn't really surprised to see Starbuck there when we got there. It _was _surprising that we weren't brought to the bridge but went to the life station instead.

And it was the back of the station specifically where we went to.

It was here that I met commander Rabb and Admiral Dewey. We shook hands briefly and exchanged pleasantrys briefly until Starbuck came out of the door. He noticed me almost immediately.

" Glad that you came, come on, I need to show you something." He motioned me to follow him.

It was a separate room of the life station. Starbuck and I were the only ones present, and in front of me was a gurney, with a body on it.

" They just told me." He began to remove the cover sheet.

My mouth fell open as I realised who it was. I looked at Starbuck who looked rather unsurly at me. " Sheba's gonna freak."

I nodded " Yeah, but who's gonna tell her."


End file.
